


When The Sun Burns Out...

by Saanikaaaa



Category: No Fandom
Genre: End of the World, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2018-12-13 07:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11754531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saanikaaaa/pseuds/Saanikaaaa
Summary: Lol this is a filler but hey





	1. Chapter 1

The soft crackling of the fire was all that could be heard in the small, makeshift camp. Conversation had long since ended and almost everyone was lying on their jackets and backpacks, trying to get as comfortable as possible among the tree roots and leaves. Although they lay still, eyes closed, they were far from asleep. Nobody could sleep properly these days; there was always a part of them listening for an unwelcome rustling in the bushes, the tell-tale sign of one of them approaching. After the rustling, as they grew closer the low groans could be heard and if you weren’t already awake and ready by then, you were a goner. It was wise to have at least one person fully aware of the surroundings as others tried to rest for this exact reason - nobody wanted to get bitten in a surprise attack while they were asleep. 

Leaning against a tree, she scanned the bushes lining the clearing they were in, watching for any signs of movement or life. Well, it was hardly life anymore. If anything, they were running from the dead who had somehow had life breathed into their core once again. She had no idea how, nobody did - those who knew were probably dead and roamed the streets, a part of the nightmare they had created. At least we managed to survive for this long, she thought, glancing over at the sleeping bodies of her friends. It was lucky that they all shared a house on the outskirts of London when this whole thing happened. Unlike other people, they didn't have to be alone, trying to fend for themselves at all. For the second time that night, she thought back to the day when it all went wrong, the panic and shouts for help were still clear in her mind and she was sure that everyone on their street trying to escape to airports and train stations were dead. 

*

Two weeks ago

“Guys, do you hear that?” There was a collective silence for a few seconds as they listened. All that they could make out was the blaring of music from the kitchen. “I don’t hear anything out of the ordinary,” Saanika replied, not even looking up from her phone as she scrolled. Costantina wasn’t convinced - she was sure that she had heard something strange outside. Perhaps she was just being paranoid, but she sighed, stepping over Cerys who had decided to lie on the rug in the middle of the room, and pulled back their living room curtain. She couldn’t see anything at first, the streetlights offered a dull glow over the parked cars in the darkness and she was just about to dismiss everything and go to bed when she saw them. The neighbours were all rushing in and out of their houses, hurriedly stuffing their car boots full of the most random array of objects - she saw the Chilterns across the street attempting to shove a rather large and bulky tapestry into the back seat, the boot already full of clothes carelessly piled into it. “What the fuck?” Saanika said from behind her, pushing the curtains fully open, “What are they doing?” They stared as Cerys got off the floor and joined them at the window. “Maybe...something happened? Let’s ask,” she suggested, opening the big window in the middle. 

“What are you doing?!” she shouted, not directing her question at anyone in particular. The Chilterns looked up briefly from their struggle with the tapestry but ignored her. After a moment, someone yelled back, “It’s finally happened! The world is ending and we’re getting the fuck out of here.” Nobody else seemed to be surprised by this statement, the Chilterns finally managed to sort everything out and were rapidly pulling out of their driveway and hurtling down the road, following other cars all racing for the main road. 

Cerys closed the window. “I’m more confused now than I was before,” she said, turning on the TV. Saanika and Costantina just shrugged and went through to the kitchen where Lauryn was doing some late-night baking. They hoped she had finished making the brownies that she had been labouring over for the past couple of hours. “Are they done? You’ve got to see what the neighbours are doing, they’re going on about the end of the world or something,” Costantina told her, helping herself to a brownie from the plate Lauryn had set down on the island. Saanika couldn’t help but notice Lauryn’s subtle glare of disdain at the island, the compromise which had been reluctantly reached so the house wasn’t completely devoid of a surface to eat on. “Probably drunk,” Lauryn said casually, putting the mixing bowl and utensils in the dishwasher. The three of them left for the living room, bringing the brownies and preparing to watch something before bed. 

“Can we watch Sex Pod?” someone asked, and everyone nodded in agreement and settled down, trying to ignore the commotion from outside; they had left the curtain open. About half an hour into the show, they were all listening to a man explaining why he felt he couldn’t explain his desire to live life as a furry to his partner when Ruby came running down the stairs, clutching her phone in her hand. “Hey bro, come and watch this with us,” Saanika said, about to explain the nature of the furry story. Just as Ruby was about to speak, the TV suddenly switched channels onto the news. “Change it back! It was the good bit what the fuck,” Lauryn cried, reaching for the remote. It didn’t change. 

“Just listen, look, something bad has happened,” Ruby said, her eyes fixed on the screen. Everyone turned to the screen, still muttering about the loss of Sex Pod. The newsreader wasn’t sitting in front of the usual backdrop of London, instead she was behind a makeshift desk in what looked to be a regular office. The camera kept moving around and cries could be heard in the distance. “What the fuck? Has someone defunded the BBC or something?” Cerys mumbled as Ruby shushed her quickly. 

“...terrorising the streets. Do not leave your houses, they are very dangerous. The army has been deployed in key areas, keep calm and avoid crowded roads.” She sounded quite calm amidst the flickering lights and the rushing footsteps as people in the building searched for an exit. “What’s she talking about? Who’s terrorising the streets?” Lauryn asked. The image on the TV flashed a little, moving in and out of focus. “I reiterate, please stay in your homes, lock all doors and windows. The central London area is worst affected, as are other major cities in the country - we do not know where they came from, some believe it was an experiment which went awry. Stay calm…” They listened as she kept repeating the same phrases over and over again, until a huge crash was heard. “They’re here! They got in! Run!” The newsreader glanced behind the camera, probably at the cameraman, in fear. She abandoned her broadcast and leapt towards the window, looking over the edge. “Shit, they’ll overrun the building.” She didn’t seem to care that the broadcast was still live. The camera was pointed at the floor as a banging was heard at the door. “Fuck! We’re trapped,” someone yelled, “There’s nowhere left to run!” There was nothing else said as the sound of a door being forced open spilled out of the speakers, joined with screams of terror which quickly turned to pain. The camera was still recording and everyone watched in horror as a horde of people came staggering into the room, knocking over the newsreader and cameraman and climbing over them, deaf to their cries. This lasted a few seconds until there was silence, the only sound was a weird squelching noise and the occasional groan as the people milled around the room before leaving. “What the fuck was that?!” Costantina cried as everyone stared in horror at the bloodstained wall and the mangled remains of the newsreader who was speaking mere moments ago. 

“That’s why everyone was leaving!” Cerys yelled standing up, “We should do the same, I’m not hanging around to get eaten by whatever those things were!” There was a sudden flurry of conversation as everyone tried talking over each other. “Pack some shit and go!”

“We may as well accept death…”

“Let’s fight them!” 

“Everyone SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Ruby shouted over the commotion. Saanika put down the lamp she was brandishing, Costantina hiccupped in an attempt to stop crying as Cerys and Lauryn stopped at the stairs. “Thank you. We need to stay calm like she said.” 

“What do we do? We should probably leave as well right?” Lauryn asked. Everyone nodded in agreement, significantly more put together than they had been a few minutes ago. “I think everyone was headed for the stations or airports to escape,” Cerys said, thinking for a moment, “it’s not a good idea to follow, the news lady said not to go to populated cities so that might extend to areas like airports and stuff as well right?” 

“So, we just drive out into the middle of nowhere?” Saanika asked, a tone of uncertainty was evident. 

“For now, yeah, we’re in quite a populated place so we should get away for a bit until we figure out a plan.” Everyone quietly agreed and went upstairs to sort out what to take. The atmosphere was sombre, it seemed that they all knew they wouldn’t be coming back to this house again. They were moving quickly, who knew how long it would be before those things came. About half an hour later, they reconvened in the living room with backpacks filled with the necessities. They had collectively seen enough disaster movies to know that their best option was to pack light so, regrettably, they had to leave behind things like guitars, laptops and books. “I did sneak in a couple of books,” Lauryn muttered, setting her backpack down by the sofa. 

“I’ve also filled a bag with some food, mainly tinned stuff which is probably gross cold but that’s just the life we’re going to be living now lads,” Ruby announced, gesturing to a Tesco Bag For Life. 

“I guess that stuff should last until we find more…” Saanika trailed off as she had another thought, “We should take some stuff for self-defence, you know, just in case we run into anything.” A few minutes later, they put all their bags into the back of their car, thankful that it had a decent amount of storage space. Taking their seats clutching their respective weapons, nobody said anything as Costantina tore out of the driveway, going in the opposite direction of the other cars. 

*

There was a faint rustling which shook Saanika out of her dream. Glancing around quickly, she realised that everyone else was finally asleep, and that she’d drifted off when she was meant to be on guard. Oops, she thought, nobody has to know though. Sitting up, she winced at the pain in her back, tree roots were no more comfortable than the jacket-backpack beds. It was at times like this that everyone missed the car, it was a far better place to sleep but they’d had to abandon it a few days ago when they got into the woods. Trees and bushes kept getting in the way and it was just a loud contrast to the tranquillity of the forest. It was because of the car that they had learned a critical thing - loud noise attracted the very things they were running from so perhaps losing it was a good thing. 

Saanika leaned up against the tree again, yawning a little and wondering when Cerys would wake up to swap with her. There was another rustle which caught her attention. She stood up, shaking the others awake as she made her way over to the bushes. “What? Time to swap already?” Cerys said through a yawn. She quickly stood and grabbed the weapon she’d brought from the house - a knife which had been tied to a stick - as she noticed the others wake up and do the same. 

“Something’s there,” Saanika whispered, pointing at the bushes which were now silent, “Maybe it’s gone now.” 

“Or maybe it’s going a different way to get us,” Costantina suggested, waving around her bloodstained pitchfork as she looked around. They were still and silent for a minute, just listening out for more signs of trouble. There was another rustle, closer this time. “It’s over there,” Ruby whispered, pointing at a smaller bush which was still shaking as something behind it moved. 

Edging closer, they raised their weapons waiting for it to jump out and attack. They usually let them make the first move before killing them. It was only polite. Suddenly, the bush shook as a small white ball of fur leapt out at them. Cerys screamed, which then led to Lauryn and Saanika also screaming. “It’s a rabbit!” Costantina cried out, reaching for it. The rabbit stayed still for a moment before bolting back into the bushes and scurrying away. “You guys scared it!” 

“At least it was only a rabbit,” Lauryn said, “We might as well grab our stuff and go, we’ve made quite a lot of noise already.” It was still early in the morning, Cerys consulted her watch and they were ready to move out by 9am. “One of the worst things,” Saanika grumbled, “is that we have to wake up so fucking early.” Nobody disagreed.

“Where do we even go? We don’t have a plan or anything guys,” Lauryn reminded everyone. They had planned to just leave the house and sort everything out on the way but so far, they were just moving from forest to forest, occasionally finding an abandoned house to get food from - their bag of food had long since run out considering that none of them had any concept of rationing. 

“Let’s get back onto the road, maybe we can find a car.” They knew the morbid truth behind the cars they encountered. At first, it seemed like reckless parking but eventually they figured it out - the cars’ owners clearly had to flee from something, leaving everything behind...and never returning. By now they had learned not to feel too emotional about things like that, it had barely been two weeks but everything had changed and getting too attached to something could end up fatal. 

They trudged through the trees as quietly as they could, backpacks weighing them down (Lauryn almost regretted bringing her hardcover version of ‘The Iliad’), weapons at the ready. They passed a few plants with berries and, once they consulted Saanika’s survival app which she had on her phone, they quickly picked as many as they could for breakfast. She never anticipated that the app would prove so useful. Although the phones had no signal, they were still useful for things like this, and they started taking a few pictures of everything they saw just in case. Most of them had died already but the ones that were still charged were turned off to conserve the battery. “I hope we find a car with a car charger or something,” Ruby said, looking forlornly at her dead phone, “I haven’t charged this since that little lodge we stayed in three days ago.” Everyone kept eating their berries as they walked, their lips stained red by the time they reached a trail for hikers. 

“We might as well follow this back to the road,” Cerys suggested, leading the way forward. Luckily, there were no unpleasant encounters for the most part, except for when Costantina almost walked into a cluster of stinging nettles. 

“Once we find a car, I guess we should try and find more food, maybe some proper weapons as well,” Lauryn said, glancing at Cerys’ knife on a stick. It clearly wasn’t meant for long term use, evident due to the fraying of the rope. Everyone mumbled in agreement as the trees became less dense and they approached the road.


	2. Chapter 2

“How about this one?” Ruby was pointing at a black Jeep. It seemed good enough for them all to comfortably fit and even get a decent sleep. Like the few cars they’d walked past over the last hour, the Jeep was standing abandoned on the road, the driver’s side door hung open as if someone had left in a hurry. 

“That one seems a whole lot more practical than that Porsche,” Lauryn pointed out, glancing at Saanika who had wanted to take that one, at least until they ran into another car. It had seemed like it was a noisy car and it could barely fit three people inside it. 

“Yeah, I get it, this car is more appropriate for the end of the world,” Saanika said as they approached the Jeep. The car was almost empty except for a map on the passenger seat and, luckily, car keys were still sitting in the ignition. “They left in a hurry,” Costantina muttered, “I wonder why, they clearly knew where they were going.” She picked up the map. There was a large red circle in the centre, and more lines coming off of the circle to highlight the route they were planning on taking. Everyone leaned closer to look at the map, distracted enough that for a moment, nobody noticed the uneven footsteps and faint groans coming from the edge of the forest. 

“It doesn’t look too far from here…”

“Where exactly is here though?”

“...I don’t know.”

The groaning grew louder as the horde got bigger, more stragglers from the forest heard the noises and decided to follow. 

“Wait if the map says North, how do we know if we’re facing North on this road?” 

“The signs over there say ‘The North’.”

“Oh.” Costantina got in the passenger seat still holding the map and the others turned, pulling their backpacks off and getting ready to place them in the spacious boot. 

“Shit,” Lauryn said, noticing the growing horde of blood-covered, dishevelled and mangled remains approaching. There were only around eight of them but it was more than they had ever faced at any one time. 

“Let’s just drive off,” Ruby suggested, opening the back door of the Jeep and preparing to get in. Her proposal was short lived as Cerys, holding her makeshift spear, ran forward and wielded it around, landing a few hits but mainly missing. There were only five and a half left (the half being one whose legs had been pulled off somehow so it was just crawling, leaving behind an unpleasant trail of blood and guts in its wake) which gave everyone some confidence and soon enough, Lauryn and Saanika were returning to the car, their clothes had a few blood splatters but they looked content enough. 

“Now let’s go, we can just follow that map and look out for somewhere with food and supplies on the way,” Ruby closed the boot, painfully aware of the fact that they had one tin of food left and it was the worst of the lot - Spam. Saanika got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. 

“It’s so quiet,” Cerys said in awe, “we could just bring this with us all the time now.” 

“There’s a car charger!” Lauryn cried as she and Ruby sprung forward and seized two of the cords. The drive was silent for a while as everyone relaxed in the comfort of the seats, the windows were cracked so there was a nice breeze. If it wasn’t for the faint scent of blood and the fact that everyone was constantly watching the roads and the edges of the forest, it almost seemed like a normal drive. Lauryn did something on her phone now that it was charging and some quiet music came out of the speakers. Well, only the volume was quiet in order not to attract anything, the music itself was rather...upbeat. 

“You should play that one Sleeping with Sirens song about the apocalypse,” Saanika suggested, turning into a side road, following Costantina's directions as she studied the map. 

“They all die at the end of it,” Lauryn reminded her, putting the song on anyway. 

“I think music and now this car is making the apocalypse slightly more bearable.” 

“Oh fucking hell,” Cerys interrupted, holding up her knife, “It fell off!” Her face was one of pure heartbreak at the loss of her beloved weapon but it soon changed into an expression of indifference, “At least this means we can go and get some actual weapons now, this knife is really a bit shit, as are the others.” She had a point, all the knives and things that were being used were from the kitchen, they weren’t really intended for survival. 

After half an hour of driving in and out of fields and dirt roads, they found themselves deep in the countryside. “Turns out,” Costantina started, “this place on the map is way further than it looks.” Everyone was getting hungry, a handful of berries wasn’t really a sufficient breakfast and the atmosphere was becoming a little tense as Saanika grew more and more irritable, eventually only responding with one word. They turned onto a particularly uneven road with hedges on both sides. There was some apprehension about the route, the road was too narrow for the car to turn around if something went wrong, it could only reverse. 

It was nearing midday as they reached the end of the hedge enclosed road and pulled into a gravel driveway before a large country house. It still had old fashioned aspects, mainly the gothic arches in the windows and the intricate details engraved into the large wooden door. There was a lamp beside the door which had been left on but the place was silent, as if it had been abandoned. “This is the dream squad house,” Ruby murmured, staring up through the window at the house in awe. It was clearly at least three stories and despite the situation of the world, the gardens were unbelievably well kept. 

“Let’s go and explore, I bet there’s loads of food in there. Maybe they even had clothes and...guys. Showers,” with that, Costantina and Saanika leapt out of the car with new found energy and ran towards the house. Everyone else followed, making sure the car with their few remaining supplies was locked. 

“Do you think anyone still lives here?” Lauryn asked, looking at the light which shone brightly, illuminating the brass number ‘6’ on the door, “Maybe we should knock.” She had barely finished her sentence when the door was pushed open by Costantina as she and Saanika walked in. “Well I guess we won’t knock then.” They cautiously followed their friends into the house, realising straight away that it wasn’t quite a big as it looked from the outside. It was still bigger than anywhere they had ever lived before though, with a grand wooden staircase in the centre of the entry hall (“They have an entry hall!”), and a few doors leading into various parts of the house. Right at the top of the stairs there was a large, rather garish abstract painting and a few family pictures were spread out all over the walls. 

“Clearly these people were loaded,” Cerys said glancing at a photo of a couple with two small boys on what looked like a ski trip. One of them was smiling brightly while the smaller one just scowled at the camera. “Same,” Saanika said, pointing at the picture. 

“They probably abandoned this place straight away for somewhere safer,” Lauryn suggested when they realised nobody was coming to greet them. Walking further into the house, Ruby proposed that they went upstairs first, just in case someone was hiding there or something. Along the stairs there were two graduation photos so it seemed that the boys in the skiing photo had probably moved out already, leaving just their parents. “I think this is one of their rooms,” Saanika pointed to an open door which led into a large, bright bedroom, “Oh my gosh guys it has an en suite.” She opened another door in the corner of the room and squealed in delight when she turned the tap, “Running water.” This was the best news anyone had heard in two weeks, they had water to actually drink from the tap, they could shower and wash their hair. The place already seemed like a small piece of heaven in the hellscape the world had become. 

“Guys...I think I found the owners…” Ruby trailed off, pointing at two figures moving towards the room. Although nobody could see them up close, it was clear that they had already succumbed to their fate much like the rest of the country. “Oh. Well then. At least we don’t have to worry about intruding,” Costantina said trying to be cheerful. By this point, they had all killed and encountered enough of the zombie-like creatures to stop feeling much emotion about them. They had been people once but the things they became in death were not people, there was nothing human about them. 

“It’s okay, they’re slow,” Lauryn pointed out, “Let’s go and find something to kill them with and come back.” There was a sense of leisure in the house, it almost felt like a kind of luxury not to have to kill them straight away, they could afford to wait and look around more knowing that they were in a safe location. With the owners still staggering around, Costantina and Cerys decided to go back downstairs and bring in the bags from the car as they had all decided to stay in the house for a while. At least, until the supplies ran out and forced them to leave and search for more. “Let’s check out the kitchen,” Saanika suggested, her stomach had been growling for ages, almost loud enough to rival the groans coming from down the hall. 

After going through the wrong door for the second time, Ruby discovered the kitchen right at the back of the house, overlooking the back garden. “This is fucking beautiful,” Lauryn cried, almost on the verge of sobbing as she opened the fridge, finding it stocked full of food. The cupboard doors were thrown open and tins of food seemed to be overflowing alongside other things like pasta and a single packet of microwave popcorn. “Holy shit...let’s never leave.” Saanika was silent so the other two turned to look, only to discover that she was halfway through a packet of Kettle chips (sea salt and peppercorns). 

A few minutes later, Cerys and Costantina returned after stowing the bags safely in the living room only to find their friends practically gorging themselves on everything. The counter in the centre of the kitchen was piled packets of crisps, some cereal and there was a distant popping from the microwave where Ruby was making the popcorn.

“You guys need to chill,” Costantina said, taking in the sight before her. 

“No you need to chill, have some food!” Lauryn yelled as Saanika went to get a drink, significantly happier than she was in the car. Costantina sighed and shook her head before helping herself to some food, Cerys followed. 

“This is lunch. I think we should do some of the stuff from the fridge for dinner before it goes really bad,” Ruby said. She picked up her plate which was piled high with a little bit of everything and her drink, walking over to a set of white glass doors across the room. “There’s a conservatory.” She entered the bright room and took a sat on one of the wicker chairs by a bookshelf - it didn’t look like the books had ever been read. 

“Well this is nice,” Saanika glanced around the room, “it looks a bit old fashioned though.” Despite the relatively modern kitchen, the rest of the house did seem to have a more worn, outdated feeling to it. In one corner of the conservatory there was a large cabinet fastened with a metal clasp. It looked like something that shouldn’t be opened so, naturally, Saanika opened it. As soon as she had undone the clasp, the doors swung open and there was an audible gasp. 

“Holy shit.” 

“That’s far more interesting than plates and all that crap.” 

The cabinet had a shelf in the middle and it was filled with around a dozen shotguns. They were probably all different types and some were significantly longer than the others but it was as if the cabinet was full of gold. “Guys!” Ruby yelled, calling in everyone from the kitchen who wandered in, still holding their snacks. 

“Fucking hell,” Lauryn said taking in the sight as she took a bite of her toast. Cerys reached in and picked up one of the guns, “These people were prepared.” She opened one of the drawers under the shelf and it was full of ammunition and various things to clean and preserve the guns. 

“This place is perfect, we just need to deal with those two upstairs and then we can just live here.” Costantina was holding a spear and left the room, yelling over her shoulder about how she was just going to kill the ones that had been left behind (they were wandering down the stairs by now). 

“Where did she get that?” Ruby wondered.

“Took it off of one of the coats of armor in the hallway,” Cerys explained, “I took the other one.” 

“These people know how to leave weapons lying around,” Saanika muttered, “But if they were so prepared, why did they even die? Surely if their house was attacked they could defend themselves, it’s not like a huge herd broke in or anything.” That was the question which had been on everyone’s minds for a while; exactly why had the owners died and not defending themselves? They clearly had the means to and even enough supplies to stay at home for a while. 

“Let’s not dwell on it.” 

“They’re dead properly this time,” Costantina announced, her spear tip was drenched in blood and was dripping onto the floor, “I’m going to go and have a shower now.” 

“Me too, I call the en suite in the first bedroom we saw,” Saanika said, following Costantina out of the room. 

“There’s probably enough bathrooms here for everyone, let’s go.” After putting their plates down in the kitchen, they all went off in search of showers. They still had a lot to figure out, mainly what was so significant about the place on the map they had found but also what had actually happened in the house before they had arrived. That discussion could wait until later though, everyone was ready to get new clothes and wash before any real plans were made.


	3. Chapter 3

“That was the best shower of my entire fucking life,” Saanika announced as she entered the living room and flopped onto the sofa. Lauryn and Costantina were still searching for clothes but everyone else had gathered in the cosy living room. The house seemed like a labyrinth of hallways and rooms but they had quickly become accustomed to the strange layout and décor and now it was almost like home. Well, a home they would have never been able to afford before this. 

“Did you raid one of those spare rooms for clothes too?” asked Cerys who had switched her blood splattered dress for a faded t-shirt with some leggings she had brought with her. 

“Yep, I found a band shirt in there,” Saanika looked down happily at her Bring Me The Horizon shirt, “I doubt this belonged to the old guy whose body is still on the stairs by the way.” She put her dirty clothes in a basket in the corner of the room where everyone else had deposited their stuff, the house had a laundry room (“Why do you need a whole room to wash clothes?”) so someone could get on that later. The rest of the room was just as dated as the rest of the house, the walls were covered in green and brown wallpaper which vaguely resembled mud, and there was another bookshelf taking up a whole wall. Ruby reached over her shoulder from the chair she was sitting on, grabbing the nearest leather-bound book. She shook it slightly, “It’s very light.” 

As she turned the book to open it, she found out why, “The books are fake!” 

“Don’t let Lauryn hear you say that,” Cerys mumbled, “She was looking forward to reading some of them.” 

“Stupid fake rich people.” After a few more minutes of sitting in the living room, they realised it was almost night time. 

“Perhaps we should fortify the house a little bit, just to make sure nothing gets in while we’re sleeping. I know I could do with a night without having to worry about death and those things,” Ruby suggested, standing up. 

“Those things need a name,” Saanika began, “They’re basically zombies aren’t they?” 

“Zombies don’t exist,” Cerys broke in. Saanika gave her a ‘are you fucking serious’ look and gestured around. “They have similar characteristics.”

“That’s true,” Cerys agreed “but don’t you think ‘zombie’ sounds a bit…shit? As if they’re not really that threatening?”

“What do you suggest?” Ruby asked as they made their way back to pick up some guns from the conservatory. The food was still strewn over the counters in the kitchen and they made a mental note to tidy up at some point. 

“The Undead sounds cooler. Because they’re dead but not dead if that makes sense, they’re like Death v2 or something.” 

“Okay so,” Ruby tried to turn the conversation to more important matters, “Let’s put a gun by the doors in and out and take one each just in case. We’ll need to find some quieter weapons too, you and Costantina have spears Cerys so the rest of us have to get something similar.” They quickly made sure the guns were loaded before placing one at the door of the conservatory which led to the back garden they decided to explore the next morning. Shouldering a gun each to keep, the cabinet was closed.

“What are you guys doing?” Lauryn asked, walking in with Costantina. Their hair was still dripping a little from the shower but they looked a lot happier in fresh clothes. Cerys handed them a gun each and explained the plan before disappearing to place one by the front door. 

“Does anyone know where the keys might be? To lock the doors?” Costantina asked, gripping her gun a little too tightly. Saanika shrugged. 

“Let’s just move something heavy in front of it for tonight and have a proper snoop around tomorrow,” she suggested. 

“Good idea, let’s do this quickly I still want to check out the books,” added Lauryn. Saanika and Ruby glanced at each other and said nothing. 

*

“That’ll do.” The front door had been effectively barricaded by a large side table from the living room, which had a few chairs piled on top of it and one of the bookshelves in front of it all. Lauryn had retreated to the conservatory with ‘The Iliad’, distraught when she heard the books were not real books. It was getting darker outside so all the curtains had been drawn to avoid attracting too much attention. They weren’t sure whether light would attract the undead but they wanted to avoid unnecessary human contact for as long as possible. 

“I found a couple more weapons aside from the guns as well,” Costantina began, “There’s a couple of machetes in the garage and an ugly sword hanging above a fireplace in one of the rooms.” The garage was attached to the house and Costantina had ensured the door leading out was firmly shut. Little attention was paid to the classic car cooped up inside, it wasn’t any use to them. 

“This is good, we have guns and normal weapons now. We’re so good at this,” Saanika stated. Who knew the apocalypse would be so easy? She wandered back into the living room and put her gun up against the wall. “I wonder who else survived. It wasn’t very hard for us and we’re not exactly the most likely group of survivors are we? Maybe there’s a whole community of people holed up in some walled village or something just waiting for more people to join them.” 

“Perhaps the owner of the Jeep knew somewhere, that could be what was marked on the map,” Costantina picked up the map from where they had left it on a side table and examined it again, “would it have killed them to label this a little?” 

“Yes,” Saanika said seriously, “I mean, they are probably dead…” There was a silence before she caught Costantina’s eye and they both started giggling. 

“We are terrible people.” In the middle of their giggles, Cerys and Ruby came back in with plates of warm pasta drenched in sauce as the smell of tomato and spices filled the room.

“There’s some pasta for dinner,” Ruby announced as she took a seat and began to eat.

“Fucking hell.” Saanika and Costantina practically sprinted to the kitchen, faster than either of them had run throughout the whole apocalypse. When they got there, Lauryn was also helping herself, along with a piece of garlic bread. She handed them bowls from a cupboard and went into the living room with the others. 

“I’m so thankful these people kept their cupboards full.” Almost sobbing at the sensation of the warm bowls in their hands, they returned to their seats with the others who seemed to be in deep discussion. 

“This sounds serious,” Costantina said as she ate her first forkful of Italian goodness. 

“We were just discussing the possibility of running into other survivors,” Ruby explained as she stabbed two pieces of sauce covered pasta.

“It’ll be weird, I was saying before that we’re not exactly textbook apocalypse people,” Saanika thought for a moment as she chewed another mouthful, “This pasta is so good.” 

“I know right,” Cerys agreed, “I might go and get some more actually.” She left the room. There was a bit more conversation about what would happen if they met people.

“It’s kind of inevitable - we can’t be the only people alive in the country.”

“If we were we could rebuild society and make it less shit.”

“How?”

“Dunno.” 

Soon enough there was a pile of bowls and forks on the wooden coffee table, placed carelessly on top of a few issues of Country Living. The pot of pasta had long since been finished off and there was talk of making more before they realised that they had failed at rationing food once. Reluctantly, they decided against it. There was no signal of the television so they had to resort to old fashioned ways of entertainment. 

“Why does one house have so many board games?” There was a pile of boxes in the middle of the floor now, full of games like chess (“Fuck that,”). They were halfway through their second game of the evening, Monopoly, and tensions were already running high. It ended with Saanika robbing the bank, Lauryn sending her hat piece to jail for it and then Cerys helping her break out by carrying the hat on top of her boat piece. “This is not how you play!” Ruby was personally offended while Costantina just found the whole thing funny. 

“Sometimes I forget the world just ended,” Saanika said, packing the game up. It was probably around midnight but nobody felt like going to sleep despite the real life beds and soft blankets in the rooms. “Let’s tidy up a little,” there were cushions strewn all over the room where they had been thrown during the game. 

“One of the cushions knocked over the photos you insensitive dicks,” Lauryn walked over to one of the tables which had a few family pictures on it. She picked up one of the owners with two other people. “It’s a family photo.”  
There was a brief air of sadness – the parents were clearly dead, their bodies still lay at the foot of the stairs but their sons didn’t know that. They might be dead as well but who knew for sure, they were probably wondering what happened to their parents, if they were still alive. The atmosphere changed suddenly as Lauryn took a closer look, “This one’s kind of hot.” 

“He’s probably dead,” Costantina pointed out, picking up another picture. 

“Doesn’t mean he wasn’t hot,” Lauryn continued to examine the photo before grabbing another one, “I wonder if they have albums anywhere.”

“That’s really weird bro,” Ruby told her as she and Cerys decided to be the responsible ones and take the pasta bowls back to the kitchen. They didn’t need to attract bugs on top of the undead. 

“Holy shit,” Saanika snatched the picture out of Costantina’s hands. It was of the guy Lauryn was practically swooning over and another one with unruly ginger hair, “He is beautiful.” 

“Oh for fuck’s sake you guys,” Costantina put her head in her hands, “I’ve had to deal with your near-crap taste for years before this, please stop.” Lauryn and Saanika ignored her and continued to trade photos. 

“What do you think they’re called?” Lauryn asked, eyeing the tattoos on them. Saanika looked at her and held back a laugh.

“What?” 

“Father.” Lauryn knew that tone and it did not have great connotations. Her eyes widened as she hit Saanika with the frame of the photo. 

“NO. Oh my gosh no.” Saanika was laughing hysterically, tears in her eyes as she tried and failed to explain what had just   
happened to Cerys and Ruby who had returned with confused expressions.

“They aren’t even attractive,” Costantina said matter-of-factly, showing Cerys the photos to get her opinion. She was not agreeing or disagreeing, preferring to stay out of it.

“What if they are dead and heard you say that? You probably hurt their feelings,” Saanika pointed out. Costantina opened her mouth to respond but before she could say anything, the room was suddenly engulfed in total darkness. Someone screamed, causing a chain reaction of collective screaming.

“See! They’re haunting the house and you pissed them off Costantina!” 

“Oh it’s probably just a power cut or something calm down.”

“Shit the power probably ran out.”

“Tragic.”

There was some fumbling around and a soft clicking as someone tried to turn the light switch on and off again, “Yeah I think it’s all gone,” Cerys said sadly, “Oops.”

“Probably because there aren’t people maintaining whatever we need to make power happen,” Ruby explained. 

Somewhere above them, a door slammed and there was the distinct sound of footsteps running down the halls and to the stairs.   
Everyone froze. 

“What’s that?” Lauryn whispered, fear evident in her voice.

The footsteps made their way down the stairs and there was a slight thud as the person collided with the bodies. There was a sigh and then total silence. 

“Fucking hell,” someone said. The voice was unrecognisable but it was definitely human. Before anyone could move or say anything, the living room door opened.


	4. Chapter 4

There was an uncomfortably bright light being swept through the living room, illuminating the fearful expressions of everyone huddled inside. Nobody said anything but they could see that the figure before them was definitely a person, despite the dust all over his clothes and his generally ragged appearance. It was clear that he wasn’t armed, all he had was a large flashlight in one hand, the other still resting on the door handle. He was quite tall with generic features – dark brown hair sat limply on his head (was it streamlined? Maybe it was the darkness) and a large moth-eaten cardigan. 

The silence continued as he stood, shocked at the sight of people, his grip tightening on the door handle. “Uh…hi,” he said. Costantina was still staring at him while Cerys and Ruby stood up, ready to greet him. Before they could approach him or say a word, there was a low click from behind the sofa. Lauryn had her gun pointed at him, ready to fire at any moment. Saanika quickly fumbled for her own gun and followed her lead, aiming at the man’s head. 

“What the fuck?” he cried, showing no signs of wanting to run, “I come in peace. Don’t shoot me, I swear I won’t do anything.” He sounded as if he was on the verge of tears as he rambled on, begging them to spare his life. 

“Put the guns down guys, I think he’s alright,” Costantina said imploringly. Saanika shook her head as she and Lauryn continued to aim their guns. 

“Not until he explains. How long have you even been here? And why didn’t you announce yourself earlier? Also who even are you?” Lauryn fired off so many questions it was hard for the man to keep up, on top of being held at gun point. This must have been a stressful situation for him. 

“I’ll tell you everything I promise, just stop looking at me like that!” Saanika hadn’t stopped glaring at him the whole time, giving him what was known only as The Look. 

“No. Just come and sit on the sofa, give Ruby the torch.” He silently handed Ruby the torch and took a seat right in the middle of the sofa as Ruby pointed the beam of light at him. It almost looked like they were in a government interrogation room – the man certainly acted like it, eyes wide and fearful as he gulped. 

“Maybe lower one of the guns, guys?” Cerys suggested as she and Ruby took the seats either side of the quivering mess before them. Saanika and Lauryn looked at each other for a moment in a silent conversation. Saanika lowered her gun and left Lauryn standing by the sofa as she sat on one of the chairs, still glaring before she giggled. The man looked even more terrified than he did when there were two guns pointed at him. 

“Sorry, your face is just funny.” 

“Are you one of those kids in the photo?” Costantina asked, leaning forward in interest. The man looked at her and shook his head. 

“No. I knew them though, before they left.”

“Obviously he’s not one of them Costantina,” Lauryn said, “We saw more pictures of them remember? They were hot.” 

“Are you saying this guy isn’t?” Costantina said defensively, gesturing at him.

“Yes.” 

“Still here,” he muttered, slowly raising a hand and putting it down immediately as Lauryn adjusted the gun. 

“Guys focus,” Ruby attempted to redirect the conversation back, “What’s your name?” She sounded a lot kinder and more reassuring than Saanika and Lauryn did so the man seemed to visibly relax as he spoke. 

“Jared,” he grew more comfortable as he explained everything further, mainly talking to Cerys and Ruby, “I’ve been in the attic for most of…whatever this is. We had some food up there and planned to wait until Austin and Alan came back, they expected them to return home…”

“Who did? And who are Austin and Alan?” Cerys asked. 

“Mr and Mrs Ashby…they’re currently at the bottom of the stairs. Austin and Alan are their children but they went off a week ago to see if they could find other people or anything to explain what had happened. They never came back.” There was a silence in the room as everyone wondered the same thing – why hadn’t they returned? It was more than likely that they were dead…

“We do need to do something about the bodies,” Costantina said after a moment, “Maybe you could bury them somewhere?” Jared nodded, his eyes welling up a little. 

“You still haven’t told us who you actually are,” Saanika reminded him, oblivious to his sorrow. He straightened and looked at her, this time with a stronger expression. 

“I worked for the family as a gardener.” The answer was satisfactory. The light from the torch was getting weaker as the batteries began to run out and everyone was getting tired at last – it was the middle of the night. 

“One last question,” Ruby began, “Why didn’t you let us know you were here earlier? Surely you heard us.” Everyone thought back to the yelling and the screeching of furniture as they barricaded the doors and it became evident that it was impossible for Jared not to have heard them. He shrugged, unsure of how to answer.

“What would you have done? I was clearly outnumbered and I knew you’d find the guns so I didn’t want to come down until I was sure that you weren’t a threat.”

“We aren’t a threat? How do you know?” Lauryn said sounding offended, “We could be.” 

“I don’t know, I guess you are right now given that you’re still pointing that gun at me, but you haven’t done anything yet. Even if you were, what do I have to lose?” He said the last part sadly as he looked down but before anyone noticed the tears spilling, the torch flickered and the light went off. There was a collective groan of annoyance as everyone gathered up their things in the dark and left the room. 

“I guess we should sleep then,” Costantina said yawning. She navigated the stairs in the dark with Cerys and Ruby following, careful to avoid the bodies. Saanika picked up her gun and watched as Jared, now sobbing freely, clamoured up the stairs to his attic. 

“What do you make of him?” Lauryn asked as they too went to find rooms to sleep. 

“Eh. He’s probably not a threat. Unless it’s all an act but if he wanted to kill us he could have or something. I’m tired.”

“Is it awkward that Austin and Alan are probably dead and we spent ages talking about how hot they are?”

“Not really,” Saanika thought about it, “It’s not like we knew they were dead. But yes, they were hot when they were alive…hotter than Jared at least.” 

“True,” Lauryn laughed as they found two spare rooms and went in to get ready to sleep. 

*

“That was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in my whole life,” Ruby announced. She had just joined Cerys and Lauryn in the living room at around eleven o’clock. They were all a lot less cranky and in higher spirits after having a chance to sleep properly without having to wake up to keep watch, or worry about being killed half way through a really good dream. They talked idly for a while, joined later by Costantina and Saanika who had already taken showers. Evidently they had taken the opportunity to wash their hair and were giving everyone else a detailed description of the showers and how many settings they had, when the living room door opened slowly.

“Morning,” Jared said quietly, not quite meeting anyone’s eyes, “I sort of made breakfast? It’s okay if you wanted to make your own stuff but I just thought….yeah,” he trailed off, pausing a little before nodding and leaving the room. 

“He still acts like we’re going to kill him or something,” Saanika muttered, getting up.

“I mean, there haven’t been living people around him for a while, I don’t know,” Cerys shrugged and walked out to the kitchen. She passed Jared who was examining the bodies by the stairs, as if deciding how to pick them up. He caught her eye and quickly looked away. 

“Do you need a hand?” Costantina asked, rushing up to Jared as everyone else filed into the kitchen for breakfast. Jared glanced at her warily, taken aback by her willingness to move bloody bodies with him. 

“No thanks.” He turned back to the bodies and went to remove the barricades from the doors without another word. Costantina watched for a moment before turning away and joining the others in the kitchen. They were already seated around the large dining table, each with a plate of food in front of them. In the centre of the table there was a jug full of juice and a bunch of toast waited to be buttered by it. Their plates were already heaped with a variety of food like eggs and general breakfast food. Cerys and Ruby had even opted for some cereal, to Lauryn’s disgust. Costantina helped herself to some as she sat down, looking out of the window to the front garden where Jared was making his way to a small shed having cleared the barricade. 

“Isn’t he beautiful?” she murmured, bringing a forkful of eggs to her mouth but missing completely. 

“Who?” Lauryn asked, looking around. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Jared, obviously. Haven’t you guys seen him properly? He is perfect.” Saanika fought back a laugh as Ruby suddenly became very interested in the floral pattern on her fork. 

“What?!” Lauryn shrieked, nearly spilling her half full cup of tea, “No way.”

“Don’t act like you weren’t looking at him too, I saw you.” Costantina was getting quite defensive and, as if sensing danger, Ruby quickly picked up her plate and muttered something about the views as she left for the conservatory. There, she could happily listen to the debate while being a safe distance away in case Costantina exploded. 

“I was looking because he was a strange man in the house. It’s not because I want to have sex with him,” Lauryn informed her calmly. Costantina glared at her when Saanika suddenly started laughing, unable to hold it in anymore.

“Sorry…sorry,” she spluttered, “It’s just…are you kidding? I can’t.” Costantina continued glaring as Lauryn began to laugh too, occasionally apologising mid laugh. 

“You people are blind to his beauty!” she cried passionately. Cerys, who had been watching this exchange with interest, put a hand on Costantina’s arm in an attempt to calm her down. 

“I support this.”

“See! She agrees that he is beautiful.”

“I do,” Cerys affirmed, “He is beautiful Costantina.” This did little to stop Saanika and Lauryn who had now fully descended into a laughing fit. They knew Cerys was just trying to be nice so that meant, seeing as they had some niceness in the group, they were free to roast Jared. Ruby returned from the conservatory, deciding that it was safe to do so. 

“I’m just going to get dressed,” Costantina huffed as she dropped her plate in the sink and stomped past Jared who was moving the second body outside to bury it. 

“I think you guys hurt her feelings,” Ruby pointed out. Saanika and Lauryn glanced at each other, feeling bad for a second but that feeling soon left them.

“Nah,” they both said at the same time. By this time, everyone was full and proceeded to tidy the kitchen up a little as it was still full of mess from the previous night. One by one, they abandoned the tidying to get dressed in something new just because they could. Although they couldn’t steal jeans or anything from the wardrobes, they had a vast choice of shirts to choose from. Some of them took clothes from the master bedroom, probably belonging to Mrs Ashby. They were sure that she wouldn’t mind which reassured Cerys as she picked up a little floral dress. 

“It’s not really appropriate for the apocalypse but since we’re at home…”Saanika had decided to raid the same wardrobe she had the day before, remembering the abundance of band shirts it was filled with. 

“It’s as if they knew we were coming,” she remarked as she pulled out a Pierce the Veil shirt, “Nice.” Lauryn had found a really nice Creeper shirt in another room, which Cerys and Saanika both eyed with jealousy. 

“Look, Jared dug a grave already,” Lauryn pointed out of the bedroom window. They looked down to see him digging the last parts of the hole before dragging the bodies inside and starting to bury them. 

“But how did he survive?” Cerys wondered, “If they died, they must have been attacked by something inside right? So why isn’t he dead too?” 

“I’m thankful he isn’t,” Costantina said walking in to watch Jared from the window. 

“That’s a good point…” Saanika agreed, “I wonder if Austin and Alan are actually dead.”

“Who knows? Also which one is which?” Lauryn asked.

“Why do you need to know?” Costantina questioned, still salty from breakfast.

“For science. I guess we could just ask Jared later.”

“I’m going to finish tidying the kitchen,” Ruby decided. She left the room as Costantina continued to stare at Jared. Sensing that she was about to start talking about his supposed beauty again, Lauryn and Saanika followed Ruby. 

“You agree with me don’t you Cerys? Look at him,” Costantina was staring at Jared as he finished burying the bodies, his already limp hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. 

“Yeah sure,” Cerys said, desperately looking for a chance to change the subject, she knew there would be a lot of Jared talk later on. “What’s that?” She pointed at the line of trees from a forest in the distance. The trees looking tiny because of the distance but it was clear to her and Costantina that something looked like it was moving.


	5. Chapter 5

“It’s probably nothing,” Costantina decided and focused her attention back on Jared. 

“Yeah, maybe our eyes are getting fucked because of the distance. Trees don’t move,” Cerys reassured herself. 

“Unless this is Macbeth, which it isn’t.” 

“True,” Cerys replied. There was a silence as Costantina continued to stare down at Jared, trying not to be shady. Realising that the conversation wasn’t going to progress anymore, Cerys made an excuse and went back downstairs.

*

Jared had finished with the grave and was rather quiet for the rest of the day, just milling around the house looking for something to do. He had already made a nice lunch for everyone and was planning dinner. He kept getting distracted with thoughts of the past few days. Everything had been going alright, he was hidden with the Ashbys and they were safe, living in peace during this strange time with everything right at their doorstep. One thing he knew that those girls were wondering was how he was still alive when the Ashbys were dead. It was clear that they hadn’t both been attacked, there was nothing in the house or garden which could have done it or they would have noticed, and there were no marks or cuts on Mr Ashby, although Mrs Ashby had a bloody patch on her arm. It was clear that he had bitten her but what had turned him? That was probably what they were wondering, but he couldn’t let them find out. They’d hate him, they might even kill him. Thankfully, nobody even knew how everything had gone so drastically wrong in the space of a few weeks so there was no way that deeper research had been done on the effects of being around the Undead or bitten…they had to find that out for themselves. Anyway, Jared thought, the scientists were all dead, if they weren’t in a bunker somewhere, hiding from the mess they probably had a hand in creating. 

“Do you want us to leave?” Jared turned as Ruby came into the bedroom he was in and sat on the window seat near where he was standing. She struck him as one of the more diplomatic people in the group, he was thankful that those two who had wielded the guns – Saanika and Lauryn – had left him alone. 

“Why would I want that?” he asked, confused. He doubted he could survive all by himself and living without human contact in a world as fucked up as this would not be good for his sanity. “You’ve all been nice…well relatively, and I was sort of hoping that you’d take me with you.” His cheeks flushed as he realised just how pathetic and weak he sounded but it was true, he didn’t want to stay here alone and he doubted that they planned to stay long term. He was sure that they had a plan.

“We haven’t got a plan,” Ruby began as Jared’s hopes began to diminish, “Not really anyway. There’s a map we found which marked out a place and we were just trying to get there when we found this house. I suppose you could just…tag along?  
Obviously, it’s up to everyone else but I know Costantina won’t be opposed to that idea.” Jared smiled a little at that before nodding in understanding. 

“Thanks. But, you should know that I have literally no skill in apocalypse things. I’m just a gardener.” Ruby grinned at him, laughing a little.

“None of us really have any skill in this. We all got this far and survived because of luck, we found this house because of luck and that map.” Jared turned away, he knew that it was pointless to rely on luck for survival. The Ashbys had been lucky to have a house with relative security and supplies and their luck couldn’t have run out quicker. 

Glancing out of the window, he saw Ruby’s faint reflection as she waited for a response but he was quickly distracted. There were at least fifty figures emerging from the woods, staggering across one of the wheat fields straight towards the house. 

“Can luck get us out of that?” he asked, pointing at the herd which had starting forming. 

*

Cerys was sitting on one of the kitchen counters, putting away plates when they were handed to her as Saanika and Lauryn cleaned surfaces. Ruby had left a few moments ago in search of Jared while Costantina, they assumed, was lurking somewhere upstairs. 

“I don’t see why Ruby has to ask if we can stay…there’s more of us than him anyway,” Lauryn sounded salty as she scrubbed a blob of stray pasta sauce from the hob. Saanika shrugged as she passed Cerys a plate. 

“Well, it is his house more than it’s ours.”

“I bet Austin and Alan would have let us stay,” Lauryn grumbled. 

“Could you imagine? I wouldn’t leave. Fuck the apocalypse, I’m living here.” 

Cerys closed the cupboard and starting opening a few drawers searching for some bags. “We should probably fill up a bag with some food and take it to the car, just in case. Maybe it’s about time we came up with a plan for once.” She pulled out a large canvas bag, the type that the supermarket charged 10p for, and started to fill it up with cans and boxes. 

“Can you get some water bottles?” she asked Lauryn, “Also we should check if they have a medicine cabinet or something.”

“You know we’re not actually leaving right?” Saanika said as she disappeared around the corner into the bathroom. A few moments later she returned with an armful of medicine and bandages and some other things like a bottle of shampoo. 

“Guys…I think we’re leaving sooner than we expected.” Lauryn’s voice was shaking a little as she stood frozen holding an overflowing bottle of water under the tap, “Look.” They glanced out of the window at the nearby fields. 

“Holy shit.” 

They were watching, stunned as the largest group of the Undead that they had ever seen made their way towards the house. 

There had to be at least a hundred that they could see, and there were still corpses spilling out of the forest so they had no idea how many there were. One thing was certain; there was no way they could fight their way out of this. Before anyone moved, there was a stumble as three people came flying down the stairs and into the kitchen. Ruby and Jared had already seen the herd from upstairs and had pulled Costantina down with them. Out of breath, they pointed out of the window and struggled to form words. 

“We need to leave now.” 

“I can go out to the grounds and try and hold them off,” Jared sounded determined for the first time as he shouldered his shotgun, “I know the gardens better than anyone, you guys need to grab as much as you can and get to the car. I’ll meet you there.” 

“Let me help you,” Costantina cried as she loaded her gun at the same time, “Back up, you know? And they won’t leave me here but who knows, they might just drive off without you.” She glanced sideways at Lauryn and Saanika as she said this, and they briefly looked offended before gathering their weapons. 

“Okay, we all have a gun, some of us have those spears so keep them with you at all times,” Saanika reminded them, “Um, Cerys you take the food to the car quickly and we’ll follow with some more guns and ammo,” as she said this, Ruby dashed off to the conservatory to raid the rest of the cabinet. 

“Oh my gosh we are so dead,” Lauryn groaned as she threw water and medicine into a bag which was whisked out to the car by  
Ruby, her other hand holding a small bag full of ammo. Jared and Costantina had already gone out to the garden and the gunshots were deafening. Ordinarily they would have used guns as a last resort so as not to attract anything but seeing as everything seemed to be moving towards the house anyway, that rule was out of the window. 

“Clothes! We need clothes!” Saanika cried and before anyone could reply she was running up the stairs to liberate the band shirts. Lauryn took one final look outside – Jared and Costantina had moved back, losing ground to the Undead who were getting closer and closer to the house – before going back to the gun cabinet to retrieve a few more guns. 

She ran into Saanika who was coming downstairs with an armful of clothes and they both went out to the car where the others were. The boot was filled with food, water, guns (Lauryn added hers to the pile) and clothes. Cerys was sitting in the driver’s seat clutching their map, ready to drive off at a moment’s notice. Thankfully, Ruby noticed, the path they had driven up to get to the house was on the other side and still looked like it was free from the figures which were rapidly gaining ground.

Ruby was quickly joined by Saanika and Lauryn in shooting stragglers which Jared and Costantina missed but soon enough, it became obvious that they were fighting a losing battle. They had to leave. They all took their seats in the car, partially hanging out of the open windows to provide any covering fire for Costantina and Jared as they ran back to the car. A few seconds later, the doors all slammed and Cerys started the car as the herd moved into the front garden. 

“Wait!” Costantina shouted, “We forgot Jared!” She had assumed he was getting in the other door and so she closed hers, at the same time as Lauryn had closed the opposite one.

“Oh shit,” Cerys muttered, “Sorry.” There was a pause as a door opened and Jared staggered inside, panting. 

“Thanks for that guys,” he said sarcastically.

“Oh whatever, we came back for you,” Lauryn grumbled.

“You didn’t even leave so how did you come back?” 

“Shut up.” 

“Closethe windows!” Saanika shouted as a hand narrowly missed her hair. The car was surrounded now, but Cerys still managed to get around them and ran a few over in an attempt to get onto the path. The windscreen and most windows were covered with blood and guts of the bodies she had rammed into but the wipers were doing a good job of sorting it out. 

“We got everyone this time?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit we almost died.”

“We should have, to be honest.”

“I can’t believe you forgot Jared!”

“I can.”

*

They had been driving for over two hours when hunger began to set in. “I made lunch, it was still in the oven,” Jared said sadly, thinking of the food they could have been eating if the herd hadn’t been so rude. 

“We should ration this food better than last time, we can have something at dinner time,” Ruby decided, telling Cerys to turn left as she consulted the map. They were back to following the map to an unknown location but it gave them the illusion of knowing what they were doing so it was good enough for now. 

“I’m hungry now though,” Saanika complained.

“Deal with it,” Costantina shrugged as she helped Jared clean the blood from his face with a tissue. Lauryn caught Saanika’s eye and they made faces of disgust before laughing. 

“I liked that house. I wish we could have stayed there longer, they probably had a wine cellar.” Cerys was convinced that there was a cellar full of alcohol but nobody had really made an effort to find it. 

“Oh there is one, it’s huge” Jared told her. 

“This sucks.” She turned onto a main road and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. This road had even ground and no potholes, unlike those horrible country lanes which caused the car to hit bumps the whole way down. 

“Does anyone know where we are?” Ruby asked, squinting at the map. 

“We’re near a forest,” Jared began as Saanika rolled her eyes (“Obviously.”), “Salcey Forest I think it’s called.” They waited for Ruby to find it on the map. 

“Fucking hell, we’re near Northampton. That’s far.” 

“Where is the place the map circled?” Lauryn asked, shoving her gun into Jared as she leaned forward to look at the map.

“Um I think its further North or something, hang on.” Ruby opened the map up until it was almost the size of the windscreen. 

“There,” Lauryn pointed at the small red circle, “It’s near Manchester I think.”

“We can’t go into a city, that would be suicide.” Costantina had a point, their entire plan was centred around them getting away from London at the start so there was no way that they were going to willingly wander into a city the size of Manchester.

“Let’s just see what happens when we get closer,” Cerys suggested. 

“We should decide now, so we have time to sort something else out,” Lauryn countered as she pulled the map onto the backseat. Just as everyone began to start a debate on the best course of action, the car slowed to a standstill.

“Why did you stop?”

“Are you fucking serious?!” Cerys rarely lost her temper but this was one of the few times. She hit the steering wheel, causing the horn to go off, “We’re out of petrol.”

“Fuck this.” 

“We have to abandon the car.” One by one, everyone got out and shouldered their guns before opening the boot. 

“Everyone pick something, we’re walking.” There was a collective groan as they picked up their respective backpacks which still held a few supplies; Jared graciously took the heaviest bag with the food as he didn’t have a backpack. The clothes which Saanika had unceremoniously dumped in the centre of the boot were split between backpacks, as were the water bottles and medicine. Once they were sorted, they made sure the map was carefully packed away before trudging down the deserted road, praying to run into a vacant car as soon as possible. 

“This is a shit day,” Cerys announced to nobody in particular. Everyone agreed. It was probably around three o’clock and had they been back at the house, Lauryn would have made some tea or something. 

After half an hour of walking and playing I Spy, the road turned into a steep hill to everyone’s dismay. “Can’t we go around it,” Saanika whined but everyone had already decided to keep walking. 

“Think of it like a country hike,” Jared suggested trying to sound cheerful. Saanika glared at him. 

“I don’t like hikes.” That was the end of the conversation. 

*

“Well this is nice,” Ruby said as they reached the highest point of the hill, “A view.” As far as the eye could see, there were fields  
of golden wheat, some green vegetables (or weeds) and the edges were still lined with the forest. Thankfully, there wasn’t anything coming out of it yet. There was a pause to admire the view which most people had used as a rest and just sat down where they stood.

“What’s happening there?” Lauryn asked, looking into the distance below the hill. There was a small group of decayed bodies crowding around something. 

“Maybe an animal died there.” 

“Is that a person?” Costantina squinted into the distance. They were clearly closing in on something large but it was still hard to tell what it was. A moment later, they saw a head bobbing higher above the Undead – a person. They were poking the bodies back with a stick and appeared to be standing on a raised surface. A car.


	6. Chapter 6

“We should help them.” Before anyone could disagree or offer an alternative plan, Saanika was spraying bullets all over the place as she tried to aim for the Undead surrounding the car in the distance. A few stopped clawing at the car and turned towards the hill before abandoning the person and staggering towards them.

“Oops,” Saanika said.

“Well, we’ve already made loads of noise so a bit more can’t hurt,” Lauryn reasoned as she raised her gun. She shot the two figures closest to her, ignoring the feeble protest from Jared, who just wanted to turn back and hide. Jared held his ground and stood with his arms folded as the others started shooting. 

“I think we’re missing more than we’re actually hitting,” Cerys commented as she reloaded. She had gone through a whole thing of ammunition and only a few bullets hit their targets.

“As long as we don’t kill the person, it’s fine.”

“Is it though?” Costantina didn’t sound convinced and decided to stop shooting, joining Jared in his one man strike. There were only a couple of stragglers left at this point and they were still close to the car, not distracted from their prize of food in the car.   
Whoever was on the roof earlier must have managed to get back in the car because they were nowhere to be seen. Hopefully they hadn’t just died, that would have been a terrible waste of bullets. 

“Wait! Do you hear that?” Ruby paused as everything stood still listening. There was nothing except a faint moan coming from the ones hanging around the car.

“I don’t hear anything,” Jared grumbled. Ruby was just about to tell him to shut up for a moment when a feeble cry was heard from the car. It was definitely a person and they were trying to say something but the distance was too great so their words were lost in the wind. They yelled again but seeing as nobody could make out what was being said, they decided it was safe enough to go down to the car. 

“I bet this is a trap,” Jared said unhelpfully as he lingered behind the group. Costantina noticed this and subtly adjusted her pace until she was walking alongside Jared, engaging in a muttered conversation. Cerys still had her knife from the end of her makeshift spear, while Ruby had pulled one out from her pocket that she had taken from the kitchen. Together they approached the car and quickly stabbed the final two creatures and watched in satisfaction as they crumpled to the ground in a heap of guts and body parts. Most of the car windows were smeared with a mixture of blood and mud so it was difficult to see who was inside but against her better judgement, Saanika pulled something out of her backpack and wiped away some of the dirt on the windscreen. 

As the glass cleared, a person was visible kneeling on the floor by the passenger seat. He was quiet as he watched Saanika finish clearing the dirt. His eyes widened as he took in the group – he knew he was outnumbered. They stared at each other for a moment before his lips began to move; he was talking to someone but nobody outside could hear properly.

“Is there someone else in there?” Jared asked even though the man in the car clearly wasn’t listening. A few moments later, there was a shuffling in the back of the car and another person emerged from under a pile of blankets, a terrible hiding place from the Undead but decent enough to hide from humans. He looked out of the window, his face mirroring the other man’s. 

“Maybe we should put our guns away, you know, so we look less threatening?” Ruby suggested uncertainly. It was as if they were dealing with a frightened kitten – they didn’t want to startle the people too much just in case they ran away or became violent, but at the same time they couldn’t just blindly trust them. Regardless, guns were lowered and they took a step back to give the people the chance to open the doors and talk to them. A few moments later the passenger side door swung open and one of the men emerged closely followed by the other one. 

“Oh my goodness,” Lauryn whispered as she took in the beauty which stood before her. The first man was tall, even taller than Jared and he was covered in tattoos which practically had Lauryn drooling. His dark brown hair was dishevelled and he hadn’t shaved in a while which resulted in an impressively well maintained beard. There was something very put together about this guy, maybe it was because his white t-shirt wasn’t as dirty as it could have been or because the contrast of the white against his black jeans and jacket was just Too Good. 

“Austin?!” Jared’s moodiness had been replaced as soon as he saw the tall, brown haired man approach them. Lauryn and Saanika caught each other’s eyes for a split second. Lauryn mouthed ‘Austin?’ questioningly and Saanika shrugged. “You’re alive? And Alan?!” He had just noticed the smaller ginger guy following Austin. His hair was long, but not long enough for it to look like Hillary Clinton’s or anything; it was just right. Like Austin, his body was almost completely tattooed and it probably took a lot of self-control for people not to just stare at all the little patterns and words. His black shirt had a faded logo on it, probably from a band, Saanika thought, as she remembered all the band shirts they’d found at the house. It wasn’t possible to see his expression properly, he was wearing sunglasses and had what appeared to be a permanent scowl. 

“Looks like it,” Austin said with a small smile, “We would have been back a few days ago but we ran into a bit of trouble. Just a word of advice, don’t go towards the city.” He gave Alan a pointed look and he just shrugged.

“It was a suggestion, you didn’t have to listen you know.” Alan pulled out a pack of cigarettes and proceeded to light one up- he didn’t seem interested in the conversation at all. 

“Um, do you guys want to explain…something?” Ruby asked awkwardly, quickly cutting off Austin and Jared’s reunion. A look of realisation crossed Jared’s face as he remembered that he wasn’t alone and that introductions were necessary.

“Oh yeah, this is Austin and the other guy is Alan,” he started, “Remember I told you about them? They lived in the house you found me at and left to go and get some kind of information about this a little while ago. And Austin, Alan…” Jared tried getting Alan’s attention but he was too busy leaning against the bloody bonnet of the car and gazing into the woods as if he was trying to look like he was in a Tumblr post, “Never mind…anyway…” Jared proceeded to tell Austin the story of the past couple of days, tactfully avoiding the topic of his parents. He knew that they would ask eventually, especially because it was clear that Jared and everyone else had no intentions of returning to the house but Jared hoped Austin and Alan could just figure it out themselves to save himself the awkwardness of explaining why he had effectively let their parents die when he promised he’d keep them safe. 

“We should go, those shots might have attracted more.” Alan had finished his cigarette and had wandered over to join Austin. Saanika nudged Lauryn and she fought back a giggle. They both tried to keep a straight face as they watched Austin and Alan move away to have a conversation, the apocalypse was no place for day dreaming. 

“You two are terrible,” Costantina said sounding amused as she watched them fawn over Austin and Alan.

“Excuse me?” Saanika began, dragging out the ‘u’ “I distinctly remember you following around a certain someone and saying the most sinful things.”

“I only said he was beautiful.”

“Exactly, sinful.” Before Costantina could respond, Austin and Alan returned. Alan was looking pissed off, unless that was just his face because he had been annoyed this entire time, but Austin was smiling widely. 

“We figured there’s no point in going back to the house if it’s still overrun so you guys can just come back with us. There’s a spot in the woods where we camped for a bit while we waited for a herd to pass us by. That’s where we’re going until we figure out what to do.” 

“That sounds good!” Saanika beamed. Ruby glared at her before gesturing for Austin to wait as she ushered everyone a few feet away to talk in private.

“You can’t just agree to go with them, we don’t even know them.” 

“Sure we do. They’re Austin and Alan,” Lauryn replied.

“And they’re so hot, we have to go.”

“You know what this reminds me of?” Cerys cut in, “That Island story you and Lauryn wrote years ago, where you wanted to go off into the haunted woods with the guys from Ghost Adventures.”

“Oh yeah, and that didn’t end well,” Ruby reminded them.

“Yes,” Lauryn agreed, “But, that was fiction. This is real life bro and let’s be real here, there are only so many humans left so we need to find the hot ones and stay with them.”

“I agree, we’re going to have to repopulate one day aren’t we?” Saanika couldn’t hold it back this time and started laughing which triggered a laughing fit from Lauryn. Ruby and Cerys looked at them disapprovingly. 

“It’s down to you Costantina, you have the deciding vote.”

“What about me?” Jared asked, nobody had really realised he was still there.

“You don’t get one,” Saanika said quickly, “Squad only.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Um,” Costantina was uncertain. On one hand, she had safety and the concept of stranger danger in her head but on the other hand, she had her two glaring friends, “I guess we could just …go? Not just because you two have crushes,” she clarified, “But because we don’t have our own plan.”

“That’s that then,” Cerys sighed as she gathered up all her stuff, ready to go. They trudged back to Austin and Alan’s car and told them their decision. His face lit up at the prospect of company, he was probably sick of being around his brother and nobody else for so long. Alan didn’t look as happy but he wasn’t angry either, he just looked indifferent as if he had better things to do that the apocalypse. 

“Are you sure about this,” Ruby whispered, “That one looks so emo,” she gestured vaguely at Alan. His expression was just…so neutral under his sunglasses that nobody was even sure he had an extensive emotional range. 

“Yes.” Lauryn and Saanika said at the same time. 

“We won’t all fit in our car,” Austin realised, “I guess we can fit about five people and there are eight of us.”

“How far is it?” Costantina asked, “I’ll walk with Jared.” Austin looked between the two of them as if he realised that there was something going on. Alan must have noticed at the same thing because he burst out laughing, the first positive emotion he had shown so far. He stopped after a few moments when he saw everyone staring at him.

“It’s just…you can do way better than Rat King.” He collapsed in another fit of laughter as Austin shook his head in disapproval.

“Rat King?” Saanika asked, sounding interested. It wasn’t obvious to everyone else whether she was genuinely interested in the term or if it was because Alan had said it. 

“It’s what Alan used to call him when we were little,” Austin explained.

“Aust, you didn’t give them The Backstory,” Alan sighed dramatically, “I’ll have to do it myself I suppose. You see, the cellar always had this problem with rats and stuff coming in and we could never get rid of them. When we hired Jared as the gardener, we asked if he had any ways of de-ratting it and he did it. He never even told us how so I concluded that he was the Rat King because they’d only listen to one of their own.” 

“That…is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard,” Cerys said. She glanced at Jared but he didn’t look offended or anything so maybe it was true. Maybe he truly was a Rat King. 

“Anyway,” Austin said loudly, trying to get everyone’s attention back, “Can we sort this out? If there’s another herd nearby they’ll be here soon after hearing those shots.” 

“Oh yeah guys,” Lauryn said importantly, “There are more pressing matters. We need to think of a solid plan like Austin said.” He looked surprised that someone agreed with him for once. 

“The place is about a mile away? Maybe? So I guess some people could walk and we can put all your stuff in the car with us,” Alan suggested. 

“Great idea,” Saanika agreed quickly, looking at Alan. Costantina bit back a laugh as she watched her and Lauryn practically sucking up to these guys, although she wouldn’t bring it up with that particular choice of words otherwise it’d give them ideas. As if they hadn’t had them already. 

They all loaded their backpacks into the boot of the car. “Wait! We had so much good stuff in our car before we ran out of petrol, we should at least go back for the guns,” Ruby remembered. 

“We split a lot of it up in the bags though bro,” Cerys reminded her, “But yes, we should go and get those guns, especially because you two don’t have any.” Austin and Alan were only in the predicament they were in before because they didn’t have adequate weapons.

“Where did you lose them? When you left the house you had four,” Jared pointed out. 

“We left one buried where we were camping just in case,” Alan told him, “One of them was a weird one which only took a specific type of bullet that we didn’t have so we just dumped it and the other two are here,” he reached into the back seat and pulled out two small hand guns, “But we ran out of ammunition. That okay, Rat King?” 

“Fair enough, I was just wondering.” Jared recoiled a little as Alan glared at him for a moment before he put the guns back.

“If that car of yours is still there,” Austin started, “We could go back there and some of you can stay in that one and we can tow it back.”

“Tow it?” Lauryn questioned, not hiding the fact that she was staring at the ocean tattoos on Austin’s arm. 

“Yeah, we have a tow rope in the car so we can just pull yours along. The place isn’t too far and it means some of you won’t have to walk.” 

“Damn,” Costantina muttered, she had been counting on being able to walk in order to get some alone time with Jared. It wasn’t yet clear whether he reciprocated her feelings or not, but seeing as there was an apocalypse going on there was no time to wait and see, she just wanted to know. 

“Okay cool, let’s just do that then,” Ruby pulled out the keys to their car which she had just kept in her pocket, “I’ll go with Costantina and Jared in our car and you guys can go in with Austin and Alan.”

“Let me go with you too,” Cerys asked Ruby. She lowered her voice to a whisper so only Ruby could hear her, “Those two are going to be so cringey trying to talk to Austin and Alan, please save me.”   
Ruby giggled and nodded in understanding, “Yeah, Cerys you should come with us too,” she said so everyone could hear, “We have more room as well.” 

“Perfect,” Austin was so smiley, it was such a contrast to his brother but it was nice to see so much positivity in a world as fucked up as this. Saanika and Lauryn joined Austin and Alan in their car, Lauryn was quick to claim the passenger seat by Austin, leaving Saanika perfectly content in the back. The others walked back to where they had abandoned their car, with Austin driving after them slowly. Thankfully it was only half an hour away and the prospect of a plan and a place to stay for a while gave them a new surge of energy.


	7. Chapter 7

“How far away was your camp or whatever it was again?” Saanika and Lauryn were waiting in the car with Alan while Austin went to help the others sort out a tow rope for their own car. Apparently they had a couple of cans of petrol they left in the woods so once everyone arrived, they would have two running cars instead of one. It seemed like befriending Austin and Alan definitely had its benefits, especially as nobody knew how to siphon fuel from car to car. 

“It’s about half an hour? Something like that,” Alan replied, sounding a bit bored. He had been looking out of the window since Austin had got out and the atmosphere in the car was getting a little awkward. For the past few minutes the conversation seemed forced so after Alan had told them how far they had left to go, everyone fell into a silence as they watched Austin sorting out the tow rope. Jared had been helping him but once he realised that he was mainly getting in Austin’s way as he tied a complicated knot he just ambled back into the other car to receive a reassuring pat on the shoulder from Costantina. 

“Fucking finally,” Alan muttered as Austin made his way back and was ready to continue the journey. Saanika frowned a little, wondering what exactly Alan’s problem was. Obviously, there was an apocalypse going on which led to life being a little…tense, but that didn’t seem like a good excuse for Alan to be acting like such a dick. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Austin speaking as he started the car and began to drive slowly.

“Let’s go!” How he managed to sound so cheerful was a mystery, “I’m sure Alan’s told you all about the place, it’s actually quite practical and perfect for now.” Lauryn almost nodded in agreement before she realised that Alan had not, in fact, told them all about anything. 

“Actually, no. What’s it like?” Saanika never thought she’d hear Lauryn sounding so interested in what was effectively a camp site, but as Austin began talking animatedly, gesturing as he spoke as he forgot he was driving it became clear that Lauryn was more interested in Austin. 

“We didn’t have to sleep directly on the ground –you’ll see why when we get there, it’s great – and we had a small fire going most of the time. Oh and we had a couple of snares in the woods to catch some food, although Alan won’t give up his veganism for anything but that was good for me, I got more to eat. I know that probably doesn’t sound like anything that special but trust me, when you see it you’ll realise. It’s definitely better than sleeping out in the open,” Austin rambled on for a few minutes about the camp as Alan yawned in the back. 

“Yeah, sleeping outside without a tent or anything is horrible. We had to do that after our first car couldn’t get through the woods for a few days and I’ve never had a worse experience in my life,” Lauryn proceeded to tell Austin everything that had happened to them in the woods, ranging from when they had to kill a few of the Undead as they came across them, to the rabbit. He listened intently and soon their conversation began to flow as if nobody else was in the car with them. 

“Have any of you been bitten?” Alan asked sharply, cutting off Austin as he began making a point about one of his tattoos. 

“Um, what?” Saanika asked, slightly weirded out by his question but also excited to have an opportunity to maybe talk to Alan a tiny bit. 

“Do you mean like, in life?” Lauryn wondered out loud before making eye contact with Saanika and realising the possible connotations of what she had just said – nobody else really noticed though.

“He means bitten by those…things. I don’t know what to call them,” Austin answered in a disapproving tone, glaring at Alan. He did that a lot.

“Don’t take that tone with me Aust, we had to ask them sooner or later. We should have done it before we agreed to take them with us, what if someone turns in the middle of the night?” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Saanika really wanted some clarification, preferably before Austin and Alan started having a full blown argument. They stopped glaring at each other through them rear mirror and looked at her in disbelief. 

“You don’t know?” 

“Know what?” Lauryn asked impatiently, looking between the brothers. They looked at each other, having a silent conversation before Alan sighed and began to explain.

“Haven’t you guys ever wondered what attracts those things to humans? To anything alive?” Lauryn and Saanika thought for a moment before shaking their heads. None of them had really been dwelling on that, all that mattered at the start for them was the fact that they were trying to kill everyone and that survival was the most important thing as people were being killed all over the country. 

“They want to bite us, at the very least, to spread it. Clearly, they also want to eat flesh and generally act like zombies a lot of the time which ends up getting people eaten alive or they die from blood loss but ultimately their aim is to at least bite us. We’re not really sure why, maybe one day we’ll find out after someone tells us where this entire infection came from in the first place.” He paused for a moment, waiting for the revelation to sink in a little. 

“Oh.” There wasn’t a lot they could say to that but it was a solid explanation for why every single one they saw ran at them, teeth bared.

“So…what happens if we get bitten?”

*

“Well this is fun,” Costantina said, sitting back in the driver seat as Austin drove the car towing them, “We don’t even have to do anything.”

“Except keep watch for anything coming from the sides, and then killing them if they do,” Ruby reminded her. That was the deal they had reached when Austin came over to tie on the tow rope; he’d drive them to the camp but they would have to steer a little and watch out for anything sneaking up on them. Jared was in the passenger seat, taking another look at the map while Ruby and Cerys watched out of the windows at the back. 

“You know, we’re following the map going this way anyway,” Jared pointed out. They were only driving for about a mile until they’d reach the camp site but at least they were getting somewhat closer to their goal. Maybe Austin and Alan knew where the map was supposed to lead them to. It would make them feel so much more comfortable embarking on a journey where they actually knew where they were going. For the past ten minutes or so, Austin had towed them along a straight road so the scenery hadn’t changed significantly, making conversation their only form of entertainment. Their phones were dead again but they had grown less attached to them after it became clear that they were pretty much useless with no working signal or internet. 

“I’m still wary about trusting Austin and Alan guys,” Cerys told them as they drove along the never-ending road lined with trees and thick forest on both sides, “We barely know them, you say you do Jared but what if they’ve changed? And it’s not like you guys were actually friends or anything were you?”

“I trust them, although we were never friends Austin always treated me like one and he couldn’t hurt a fly. That’s why he was   
having such a hard time fending off the Undead surrounding their cars; knowing him, he probably couldn’t separate them from actual people. To him, they’re still people of some kind I think.” 

“If you trust them then I trust them Jared,” Costantina said determinedly. She was expecting to hear giggles or a comment of disgust but then she remembered that Saanika, Lauryn and Alan weren’t there. Nobody else was really that bothered about her and Jared. They hadn’t made anything official but it was obvious that Jared knew how she felt and, possibly, felt the same way. She didn’t know yet.

The car was silent as Costantina steered a little whenever the road curved and Jared examined the map. Ruby was staring out of the windows clutching her gun, but she was also bored of seeing the same trees lining the road. She wished the scenery was a little more interesting, especially since they were now venturing deeper into the forest and there were no more colourful fields or little houses to look at. She glanced over at Cerys who was also looking out of the window but she had a distracted expression. Ruby noticed her hand was rubbing her leg but her dress was long enough to cover whatever she was distracted by.

“What are you doing?” she asked, catching Cerys’ attention and pointing at her leg. 

“I think I caught it on a branch somewhere, it stings a bit.” She pulled up the skirt a little and revealed a cut about the size of a guitar pick. It wasn’t bleeding a lot but the skin around it was bright pink and it clearly needed to be bandaged or covered to prevent infection. 

“That doesn’t look like it was caused by a branch,” Ruby said. Cerys covered it up again and shrugged. 

“It’s okay I’ll just get a plaster or something when we get to the camp. It’ll be fine, it’s not like it’s going to kill me,” she laughed.

*

“You die,” Alan said darkly, before his voice turned more cheerful “But none of you have been bitten anyway so it doesn’t matter. At least you know now.”

“Yeah I guess,” Saanika said, “But how can one bite just kill you? I mean, obviously if it rips out a chunk of your flesh then yeah sure, you die. What if it’s just a little bite though? Like when people bite their nails or something, those aren’t strong bites.” 

“Doesn’t matter,” Alan said matter-of-factly, “It’s not always the actual bite itself that kills you, it’s the infection that comes with it. Whatever made this whole apocalypse happen gets into you through the bite, it practically becomes a part of your bloodstream if it isn’t stopped quickly and that’s it.”

“That’s what?” Lauryn was growing a little agitated, Alan was just explaining things a little bit and he was so vague, “Can you just tell us in one go please?” 

“He just likes being dramatic,” Austin explained as he gently placed a hand on Lauryn’s knee, causing her to literally melt. Alan scowled.

“Okay I’ll just get to the point. You get bitten, the virus is in your blood and then basically, there’s no going back so eventually you’re just going to turn into one of them with little warning. So, it’s not always the severity of the bite, it’s actually what the bite transfers into your blood.”

“Can we change the subject now? I think we know enough and we’re going to have to repeat it all again for the others when we get to the camp,” Saanika said, “Speaking of, are we there yet?” 

*

“Are those cabins?” Costantina turned the car sharply to follow Austin’s as they pulled into a camp site in a clearing by the edge of the woods. Through the trees, the road was visible but they were deep enough that nobody would see them unless they knew that the camp site was there. 

“They are! This is almost as cool as the house was,” Cerys exclaimed. The cars both stopped a few feet away from the first cabin and everyone got out. Jared and Costantina went to the boot to retrieve the guns and backpacks they had left there as Alan pulled out a couple of things from the other car. 

There were four small cabins in the clearing, each of them had a door number and a small patio area in the front which looked like the perfect place to put a rocking chair but unfortunately they didn’t have one. The dark brown wood mixed perfectly with the tones of the surrounding forest so the cabins didn’t stand out from a distance. In the centre of the camp, there was a small fire pit with an empty pot which had been left hanging over it and it was surrounded by logs. There was even a little picnic table which had been built into the ground near the fire. The place itself looked like somewhere people would go for a weekend away from the busy lives they led in the city, which was a similar purpose it served now, a place to relax and live in comfort despite the horrors of the world outside. 

It was early evening at this point and Ruby had immediately joined Austin who was kneeling by the fire pit, attempting to light a fire. Once he had a blaze going, Ruby pulled out a few tins she had salvaged from the house and poured the contents into the hopefully clean pot. 

“You guys are so fucking efficient,” Saanika said in awe as she watched them start making dinner. Cerys and Lauryn were sitting on one of the logs by the fire. Lauryn was mainly just staring at Austin as he concentrated on controlling the fire and adjusting the logs underneath it while Cerys was offering Ruby some tips on which cans of food would be good mixed together. 

“We should decide who’s sleeping in which cabin and stuff,” Jared suggested, “There are eight of us and four cabins so…two to a cabin right?” 

“I am sick of sharing with Austin, I’m just going to put that out there,” Alan announced. Austin rolled his eyes but smiled fondly at his brother. He wasn’t offended or anything.

“Yeah same, we haven’t had to share a room since we were kids and it’s just annoying now.”

“So why did you do it?” Costantina asked, taking a seat on one of the logs as she watched the pot boil.

“Just in case something happened,” Austin shrugged, “But now that there’s so many of us, it’s fine to split up a little bit, especially because that horde has passed as well.”

“Sounds good. I’m with Jared.” Nobody was surprised. Jared turned bright pink for a second and when Lauryn pointed it out, he muttered something about the fire being really warm before wandering off to collect his and Costantina’s things and taking them back to a cabin. 

“Oh! We need to tell you guys something really important,” Saanika remembered. With some help here and there from Austin and Alan, she explained everything they had said about bites. 

“That makes this whole thing even more scary,” Ruby began, “This whole time I thought we survived because we were immune to whatever created them and then we just got lucky enough to escape from them killing us.”

“I don’t know how they were created but we really have to be more careful around them now,” Costantina said. By now, Jared had returned and Costantina quickly filled him in.

“So that’s why Mrs Ashby had a bite on her arm!” he yelled tactlessly. There was a pause as he realised what he’d said, glancing apologetically at Austin and Alan. They obviously knew their parents were dead but nobody had really gone into detail about what happened to them. Only Jared really knew, the others had arrived when they had already turned. 

“What do you mean?” Alan said in a monotonous voice while Austin had started poking the fire with a twig acting busy.

“Um, when I was burying them I noticed that she had a wound on her arm which must have been the bite,” Jared trailed off awkwardly as he watched Alan for a reaction or some emotion. He was just still, as emotionless as ever and nodded for Jared to continue.

“That’s it really…I didn’t see anything on Mr Ashby though. But um…” Jared trailed off again, as if he wanted to say something else.

“What if,” Cerys cut him off, “What if the virus or whatever it is, is already in us? And when we die it just comes into effect and we turn?” There was a silence as everyone considered this.

“You’re right Cerys,” Jared took a deep breath, “I might have lied to you guys a little…”


	8. Chapter 8

Jared trailed off as if he was trying to find the words to explain what he had done. He knew they would have to find out at some point and now that everyone had started asking questions about how people turned and the very nature of the virus he knew it was time to tell the truth. But he was still so conflicted inside. He didn’t mean to do what he had done, he never intended for anything to happen. He didn’t mean for anyone else to die because of it. In his mind, he was doing the right thing, the most humane thing that could be done for people in that situation. Then it all went wrong when he realised that he completely lacked the knowledge and expertise to actually deal with the situation. It was too late though.

“What are you talking about? And what do you mean about me being right?” Cerys asked as everyone else stared at Jared with a mixture of interest and disbelief. As soon as he had revealed that he had lied, Lauryn’s expression had changed to one of anger and she was about to launch into a flurry of words explaining exactly why Jared should have been left behind but she decided to save that for later.

“It’s already in us,” Jared whispered looking down at his hands and not meeting anyone’s eyes, “The virus. So even if we go our entire lives not being bitten or anything, we’re still going to turn. It’s inevitable.”

“So you knew this the whole time?” Saanika asked and Jared nodded, looking ashamed. It wasn’t obvious whether she was angry and just using a calm tone or if she genuinely didn’t see what all the fuss was about. It was the latter.

“Okay…that’s not really a big deal though is it?” Costantina said slowly in an attempt to defend Jared from anyone who doubted his loyalty, “We know now which is fine too and anyway, who really cares what happens to us when we die?” Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because Ruby who was usually more calm and collected in matters like this looked like she was ready to explode.

“That’s not the point Costantina,” she all but yelled, “It is the principle. He didn’t tell us this, which by the way is a very important thing. If he’s lied about this, who knows what else he’s lied about? I bet he knows more about this apocalypse than he’s letting on.”

“No but-” Costantina tried to speak in favour of Jared again but found herself cut off by him. 

“Costantina just drop it.” His tone was firm; he even sounded a little bit angry which was uncharacteristic of him. Saanika and Lauryn roasted him so much and he barely ever reacted but this situation had caused such a shift in his personality that even Costantina looked surprised and shrunk back from him a little. The pot of food had been left abandoned although the fire was still blazing under the pot and Costantina muttered something about saving the food from burning and picked up the pot from the handles and carried it away.

“I’ll go after her,” Cerys murmured, standing up and following Costantina into one of the empty cabins.  
Jared sighed and turned to Austin and Alan. Austin looked a little lost now that he had no reason to be poking the logs in the fire and Alan was just watching Jared, almost daring him to continue explaining what had happened to his parents. “I have another thing to tell you…about your parents…”

“Oh do you?” Alan began in an irritated tone, “Get to the point then, as long as you don’t lie again or conveniently forget to tell us something.” 

“I don’t know how to tell you,” Jared muttered as he tried to ignore Alan’s glares and instead decided to face Austin whose expression was more confused and slightly concerned. Next to Alan, Saanika huffed impatiently as Jared continued to fiddle with his hands as he tried to figure out how to tell them. How do you ever tell someone something so awful? 

“Just tell us, it can’t be that bad,” Austin said kindly as he tried to coax words out of Jared who had started to tremble. 

“Oh my God,” Alan groaned, “Fine, if you can’t tell us straight up what you did or whatever it is, answer this. Where did Mum get that bite from? Do you at least know that?” Alan couldn’t control his annoyance at Jared by this point. First off, although he knew his parents were certainly dead he didn’t expect them to have been bitten or anything, especially under Jared’s watch. That was the whole reason why he and Austin had reluctantly decided to leave the house to search for answers – they trusted that Jared would look after their parents.

“Holy shit,” Ruby whispered, looking at Jared. “Is it what I think it is? Was it…?” she stopped mid-sentence as Jared just nodded. 

“What is it?” Alan asked, it was almost as if he had started to whine, “Will someone please tell us what the fuck is going on already? This is literally the shittest build up ever.” 

“Isn’t it obvious Alan?” Austin laughed bitterly as he figured it out. Jared hadn’t failed to only protect his Mum, but also his Dad,   
“He let Dad turn and bite her!” Austin’s kind and understanding persona had faded and left behind a more vulnerable person, someone who had finally understood how he had lost almost everything as he gazed at the man who was responsible for the fact that the only family he now had left was his little brother. 

“How? You said they wouldn’t turn if they weren’t bitten…” Alan started, his voice breaking a little. Jared made eye contact with almost everyone except him, and they quickly figured it out. Mr Ashby must have died somehow when they were hiding and turned. 

“It was an accident,” Jared was sobbing by this point, unable to handle the emotion and the fear he was feeling. He would have felt comforted if Costantina was around but he doubted that even she would defend him if she found out the whole truth. 

“What was?” Saanika asked as she awkwardly patted Alan’s arm in an attempt to comfort him. Similarly, Lauryn was trying to offer Austin emotional support but it seemed that he was more angry than upset and she was having trouble. 

“His death...I killed him, but I swear I didn’t mean to,” he added quickly as Austin looked up at him with a face of pure resentment. The only thing that was stopping him from lunging at Jared and ending him was the fact that Ruby was in between the two of them and that he kind of wanted to hear the rest of his story. Then, he would kill him. He was sure than Alan felt the same way but oddly for him, he was sitting in silence just studying Jared in disbelief. 

“How could you?” Alan said quietly. Jared gulped and Saanika pulled away a little, scooting closer to Lauryn as she realised that Alan wasn’t just being quiet – it was the angry kind of quiet which, in her opinion, was way scarier than the regular uncontrolled anger he had been displaying before.

“It wasn’t meant to happen, he just…something started to happen to him and I don’t know, he was fine one minute and then he just collapsed?” Jared was speaking very quickly and his words were all rushed so it was difficult to understand him, “And my mind was telling me to do that thing, you know, the recovery position or whatever it is and I just froze and couldn’t do anything about it. Mrs Ashby was downstairs when it happened, she had gone to bring us some food and things from the kitchen and by the time she returned….” He couldn’t continue anymore and broke down in sobs all over again. 

“So, you essentially watched as my father died in front of you, because your reaction times are shit?” Alan said, still feigning calmness despite the emotions which were building up inside of him like a tidal wave just waiting to come crashing down on the shore.

“So that's it then? Your stupidity and recklessness killed not only my Dad but led to him becoming unhuman in death and then biting my Mum and killing her?” Alan didn't know how to feel, he had known his parents were dead for a while but he never imagined that it could have been at the hands of someone they had trusted to keep them safe. He couldn't help but wonder what his mother was thinking before she died, obviously she had no idea that her husband was responsible for her death, she must have been so confused maybe even betrayed when he attacked her.

A thought just occurred to Alan, fuelling his anger so much that he felt he was going to explode. Jared was responsible for them turning but then what? He didn't shoot them or lay them to rest. He just hid like the fucking coward he was and let them roam around what was once their home, a shell of who, and what, they once were. It seemed than Austin was thinking similar things because all of sudden while Jared was still crying into his hands, he pulled away from Lauryn and lunged at Jared. Ruby screamed and managed to duck out of the way as Austin swiftly punched Jared, causing him to fall backwards off of the log. 

“Oh my god!” 

“Stop it!”

There were shouts coming from everyone except Alan who was watching but not reacting. He didn’t move to help Jared understandably but he wasn’t helping Austin either. Who knew what was going through his mind. Seconds later, Costantina emerged from the cabin and started yelling at Austin to leave Jared alone. She had missed the main part of his revelation so she had no idea what the fight was about but all she knew was that Jared was being beaten up while everyone else just stared. 

“What the fuck?” she cried as she ran over, “Leave him alone! Why aren’t you guys stopping him?” Nobody said anything as Jared cried out after a particularly painful punch in the stomach from Austin.   
Jared managed to land a feeble punch to Austin’s jaw but it was pathetic at best and did no damage to him at all, barely distracting him as he sent a particularly painful blow to Jared’s face, watching as he groaned in pain. He didn’t seem particularly fazed by the blood dripping from Jared’s nose, or the fact that his lips were completely torn apart.

“I’m…sorry..” Jared coughed, giving up as more blood poured out of his mouth. Austin was silent and after a few moments of glaring at Jared he shook his head in disgust and, with one final scathing look at Jared, stood up and disappeared in a cabin with Lauryn following closely behind him. Jared was leaning against the log looking defeated as Costantina rushed in and started fussing over him.

“Where’s Cerys?” Ruby broke the silence. She and Saanika had been silent and didn’t do anything during the fight because they didn’t know who was in the wrong – it seemed like it was Jared for the most part and due to Austin and Alan’s anger, it was probably wise to stay silent anyway. 

“Still in the cabin, I think it’s where Austin and Lauryn went too. She said she felt a bit sick so she’s having a lie down,” Costantina said bluntly, not looking at anyone but Jared. She was annoyed that her friends stood back and watched as Austin practically attacked Jared, it wasn’t even because she liked him but rather that she didn’t believe violence was the best response. Saanika seemed to know what she was thinking.

“He was angry…” she muttered, trying to defend Austin’s actions, “To be honest I see where he’s coming from.”

“You do?” Alan spoke up for the first time in a while, looking at Saanika in astonishment as Costantina glared.

“Kind of, I mean, you guys completely trusted him and…that happened. And from what I’ve seen Austin is probably the most chill out of the two of you so it would take a lot to make him kick off like this.”

“That’s true,” Alan said with a half-hearted laugh, “If he hadn’t gone for him, I would have.”

“I can’t believe you!” Costantina cried angrily after Ruby had filled her in on Jared’s revelations. For a moment, Saanika thought she was yelling at Jared but was surprised to see Costantina’s furious expression directed at her and Alan. 

“What?” Before Costantina could start ranting about Jared’s condition and how unfair it was for Austin to have beaten him up so much without letting him try and defend himself, Austin returned. He looked mildly panicked as he approached Ruby who was closest. Everyone seemed to pick up on his panic and looked at him questioningly, waiting for an explanation.

“It’s Cerys,” he breathed out.

“What about her? She was fine when I left her,” Costantina said.

“She was bitten.”


	9. Chapter 9

A stunned silence spread throughout the camp. Jared had stopped his groaning and whining as Costantina stopped tending to his face halfway through mopping up the blood on his nose. Ruby and Saanika just stared at him as if waiting for him to start laughing and telling them they had been pranked. Alan, being the only one who wasn’t in a state of shock, broke the silence.

“Are you sure?” he said seriously, looking directly at Austin. He just nodded solemnly. That did it for everyone. Tears had already started streaming down Ruby’s face although she hadn’t registered them. Saanika just looked angry at something, probably at whatever had bitten Cerys in the first place and Costantina just had a defeated expression. 

“Where is Lauryn?” Jared asked, his voice still laced with pain.

“She’s with her, she’s asked me to bring you guys in. At the moment she’s…okay.” Austin turned and walked back to the cabin as Saanika and Alan quickly trailed after him. Ruby dumped a bucket of water on the fire before following and Costantina stood up and, while supporting Jared, they hobbled over.

The cabin was the furthest one away and once Austin had opened the door, everyone crowded into the relatively small space. The only light came from the windows at the front which only allowed in the dull evening glow as there was no electricity. In one corner, there was a wooden table next to a chair which had a bright red cushion on it, giving the room a bright splash of colour in an otherwise gloomy room. A tall wardrobe and a dresser sat alongside the walls and except for a few pictures of scenery, the room the quite bare. 

Lauryn had pulled up one of the chairs which were around the table and was sitting on the side of the small bed in the middle of the room. Cerys was in the bed, she had pulled the multi-coloured quilt all the way up and was sitting up talking to Lauryn. They both looked up when everyone walked in. Costantina quickly deposited Jared in a chair and went over to the bed, joined by Ruby and Saanika. Austin and Alan hung back by the door, giving everyone their space but it was clear that they still hadn’t forgotten Jared’s revelations earlier as they made a point of standing as far away from him as they could. 

“Hey guys,” Cerys said calmly. She still looked normal, it didn’t seem like she was bitten or anything. If this had happened a few days ago, everyone would have come to the conclusion that she had caught a cold or some minor illness. Nobody would have predicted that she was likely to die from it, “I guess that cut didn’t come from a branch then.” She was trying to keep the atmosphere light but it was far from that. Ruby was still crying and Costantina joined her, although they were trying not to completely lose it, especially while Cerys evidently wanted everyone to be calmer.

“We were just talking about…wait what were we talking about Lauryn?” Cerys asked. Lauryn sniffed and sat up a bit straighter, clearly trying to hold back the tears as well.

“Just a bunch of random crap really,” Lauryn laughed although it didn’t sound genuine. For a few minutes, nobody mentioned the obvious and the room was filled with mindless chatter and a couple of half-hearted laughs at stories people were telling. 

“…and then I was like ‘I don’t know’ because I didn’t want to rat you and Ruby out to her,” Saanika concluded after retelling one of her most legendary stories for the hundredth time. There was a snort from behind them and she turned around to see Alan trying to supress his laugh. 

“Sorry, just…that story.” Cerys laughed a little and soon enough, everyone was going through another round of laughter. Although there was the underlying pain as everyone knew that the inevitable would come soon, it felt nice for them to just laugh and reminisce for a while despite the circumstances. Cerys looked at each of her friends as they smiled, noting that their smiles never fully reached their eyes. Unbeknownst to the rest of them, Cerys had sort of come to terms with death a while ago. As soon as the apocalypse had started, she had seen so much death and destruction that she had just become desensitised to a lot of it, and she also realised that one of the main reasons that they had survived for so long was luck. There was nothing they could actually do to prevent this kind of death as they had found out from Jared earlier. She knew that it was inevitable so she wasn’t angry at anyone, just disappointed and upset that she was going to leave her friends alone in this horrible situation and that she had limited time left with them. 

They had all thought that this would be something that they would survive together. Having already survived the pressures of school and the not so uncommon conflicts of living together, the apocalypse should have been easy. It seemed so unfair that after they had survived huge hordes of the Undead, sleeping rough in the woods and near starvation when they had to live off of berries, a single, unnoticeable scratch was enough to bring it all to an end. Cerys had barely noticed it, it didn’t even hurt when it happened at all – it was the sharp sting of reality that got to her when she realised that the smallest, most insignificant injuries were the most fatal. As someone else starting to bring up another story – the one where they had all gone to Hillyfields and heard some foxes having sex – Cerys felt herself grow a little bit more tired. The bite hadn’t taken much of a physical toll on her yet, she just felt like she had a bad cold or something like that but all of a sudden her brain was telling her that it wanted to have a nap. 

She had no idea how long it would take her to turn. Did it take days? Or hours? Would it hurt? One of her biggest fears was being partly alive while her body became a decomposed mess and tried to attack the living. She didn’t want to see out of her own eyes as she became an uncontrollable mess, just watched as she attacked and possibly killed her unsuspecting friends. 

She interrupted the story and addressed Jared, much to his surprise. “How long does it take?” 

“How long does what take?” he still seemed pretty out of it as he held his nose, glancing at Austin from time to time. 

“What do you think?” Lauryn said condescendingly, although she didn’t clarify. None of them wanted to put it into words, it just made everything more real.

“Oh,” Jared said in understanding, “I get it. Um, it only took a few moments…last time.”

“That’s odd, it’s been ages since…you know,” Ruby said in confusion.

“Maybe it takes longer because it wasn’t natural? Like, you got bitten but Mr Ashby just died,” Jared said a little insensitively. 

“Makes sense.”

“Does it?”

“No.”

Cerys thought it through for a moment before she reached a decision. She didn’t want to wait around and then become one of them at a random moment which could put everyone in danger. “I think you should just shoot me,” she decided, “Before I become one of them.” Her tone was casual, to the surprise of her friends. 

“We can’t just…”

“No, what if you don’t even turn?”

“It might not be that bad.”

There was a flurry of alternative suggestions but Cerys wasn’t going to hear it. She knew she had been bitten, that there was no other factor which could have caused this. When she looked closely at the cut, she noticed a few tiny marks which confirmed that it was a bite. There was nothing she could do but the one thing she still had power over was her death. 

“You have to do it,” she said firmly. 

*

For the second time that evening, everyone had gathered around the small, empty fire pit sitting on logs but this time there was a rising tension and sadness in the air. Austin and Alan were attempting to return the vague comfort that Lauryn and Saanika had tried to give them a few hours ago but were having no luck. Costantina and Ruby were still crying from time to time and essentially, everyone was a mess. Jared wasn’t there. He was still in the cabin with Cerys, for some unknown reason she had asked him to stay for a bit while she sent everyone else away. 

She wanted him to do it.

When she had announced her decision, it was met with some hostility mainly from Saanika and Lauryn, while Ruby and Costantina were just confused. They discussed it briefly out on the logs and came to the conclusion that if she had asked any one of them to do it, they probably wouldn’t be able to, especially because she was still technically alive. Maybe that’s why she chose Jared, he had the least amount of emotional attachment to her aside from Austin and Alan, and she was slightly familiar with him. 

There was a tense silence in the air which had been going on for around half an hour. Cerys was probably talking to Jared about something and he was probably looking in the cabin for the gun which Austin said was in there. It all became too real when they dwelled on what was going on in the cabin but it was impossible not to think about it. Austin and Alan had already dug a small grave behind the cabins, saying that it was best to be prepared but Lauryn suspected that they were trying to give them their space and get their heads around what was about to happen. They were still a part of the group, even though it had only been one day. 

Everyone’s thoughts were interrupted when the silence was shattered by a loud gunshot which pierced the air. 

*

About an hour later, it had started to rain. Not pouring, but a few droplets were falling on them from between the trees. On an ordinary day, Costantina would have been fumbling for an umbrella but today she just stood still as Alan shovelled the last of the dirt on the grave. They had gathered in a small circle around what looked like a patch of dirt. 

“Someone should say something,” Saanika suggested quietly as Alan put the shovel against a tree and moved next to her. 

“We could mark the grave too,” Ruby said as her voice broke a little, “Like a headstone but not…”

“I know what to use,” Lauryn told them disappearing back into one of the cabins where the backpacks were. She returned a few minutes later with a small potted plant. “It was on the window sill.” She gently placed the potted cactus on the grave and stepped back. 

One by one, they went around the circle and said a small piece. Jared got too choked up and had to leave, understandably as he was the one who had to do it. Even Austin and Alan, who had only known her for a short time, mustered up a few words. After everyone had said something, they tried their best to dry their tears and turned away, walking back to the cabins in silence.

*

The next morning they found themselves on the porch of one of the cabins in a deep discussion. Nobody got any sleep the night before but they had decided to try and move forward as best they could. They had already decided not to use the cabin Cerys was in so that night the remaining ones were used, although one had three people which was a bit tight. It wasn’t their biggest concern though. They had come to a collective decision that if anyone else was bitten, they would be killed by someone before they turned. Nobody wanted that fate and agreed to do whatever they could to avoid it happening. As hard as the discussion was so soon after, it was necessary. They all knew that they needed more time to actually grieve and try to return to normal but time was a luxury that they couldn’t afford. At any point, they could run into trouble and they needed to have a plan in place, especially because the gunshot could have attracted anything, from people to the Undead. They didn’t have time to take any chances. 

“What did you talk about…before you…you know?” Costantina asked Jared, sitting on the stairs next to him. Everyone else was on the other side of the porch discussing the map that they had found, asking if Austin and Alan had any ideas on what it led to. Costantina and Jared could talk without anyone listening, nobody was really that concerned with what they were talking about anyway. The question of Jared’s fate was also up in the air but collectively, it was decided to leave that matter alone for a while.  
Jared turned to Costantina and his expression softened. “We talked about you.”

“Me?” Costantina was surprised to say the least. “Why would she talk to you about me?”

Jared sighed and took her hand in his, “She told me how you feel about me,” he said, laughing a little as she blushed, “It was really obvious you know.”

“Really? I thought I was being so low-key about it.”

“No way. Anyway, she just told me that although she and the others teased you about me and all that, she wanted me to try and keep you happy and safe in all this.” Costantina smiled at this, feeling a small ray of happiness despite the sadness that was hanging over everyone.

“Oh,” was all Costantina could say and she mentally kicked herself. This was the moment she had been waiting for and all she could say was ‘oh’? “Sorry, I’m not very good at this,” she said, looking away in embarrassment.

“It’s alright,” Jared said as she turned to look at him again, “We’re going to have a lot of time to get good at this.”

“Good at what though?” Costantina asked. Jared smiled as he leaned closer. She felt her heart begin to beat faster and faster, but at the same time she also thought it had stopped. This man could literally take her breath away. 

“This,” he whispered as he gently pulled her into a kiss.

 

(A/N: I’M SORRY BUT EW OMG I CAN’T, JARED YOU ARE ON A PORCH AND THERE HAS BEEN A DEATH FUCKING CHILL OUT MATE)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol this is a filler but hey

“That is almost pornographic,” Lauryn commented, interrupting Ruby as she pointed out various points on the map they were discussing. Ruby followed her gaze and saw Costantina and Jared kissing like this was their last day alive or something. 

“Are they planning to come up and breathe any time soon?” Ruby wondered, shrugging and smoothing out the map which had become creased in the wind. A few moments later, Jared pulled away and stood up to join everyone on the porch of one of the cabins, Costantina followed, looking slightly disgruntled. 

“We could hear you, you know,” she grumbled as she thought of where that kiss could have gone if they hadn’t been disturbed. 

“There is no time for love in the apocalypse,” Saanika said as she quickly glanced at Alan who was busy reloading his gun over and over again. It was getting a bit irritating, the constant clicks of him opening and closing the chamber. Costantina noticed this and smirked at Saanika’s obvious hypocrisy before looking between Austin and Lauryn.

“Is there not?” Lauryn’s eyes widened as she realised that her friend might accidentally spill everything about her crush on Austin, who so far seemed completely unaware of it. Similarly, Alan had been oblivious so Saanika and Lauryn had previously decided that they needed to up their game if they were going to achieve anything. 

“Of course not, come and look at the map. Ruby’s explaining that we might be able to reach the place in a couple of days if we wanted to,” she replied, quickly changing the subject. 

“Do we really have to leave so soon though?” Saanika asked, “There isn’t anything wrong with this place, can’t we just stay here for a while?” There was a pause as everyone considered this. It was true that they hadn’t had a chance to stay put somewhere for more than a couple of days. They needed to rest up properly before driving for hours to an unknown location where they had no idea what to expect. 

“I think that’s a good idea,” Alan said breaking the silence, “We can at least make some kind of plan and figure out exactly how to get there so we don’t waste petrol, who knows how much is left at the stations now.” He offered Saanika a rare smile, causing her to almost die on the spot, before he returned to the ever present scowl. It was a good point, although their impulsiveness and their habit of planning things at the last minute had led them to find the house and go to the camp with Austin and Alan, their luck was already beginning to run out. It was barely twenty four hours since Cerys died, and more recklessness would end in more death which could be avoided. 

“You know, she would have wanted us to carry on,” Jared said softly, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of where Cerys was buried. He thought he was helping to build morale, but as soon as he finished his sentence he knew he had said the wrong thing judging by the glares. Even Ruby, who usually didn’t get involved in the others’ campaign of what was quite frankly bullying, scoffed at him.

“We know that, no offence but I think we knew her a hell of a lot better than you did.” She thrust the map towards Saanika who grabbed it as Ruby sauntered down from the porch and to the campfire in the middle of the cabins. Of course there was still a heavy tension hanging over everyone after yesterday’s events and revelations but Jared thought he was being helpful. He frowned as Saanika and Lauryn decided to go and help Ruby who had now decided to start making something for breakfast, Austin and Alan trailing after them. 

“I didn’t mean to…do that,” Jared told Costantina, hoping that she wouldn’t ditch him as well. It was already hard for him in this situation, aside from the apocalypse because he felt that the only person who really liked him and cared about him was Costantina. Even Austin only seemed to be nice out of loyalty because they’d known each other before, not for any other reason. Costantina offered him a sympathetic smile. 

“I know you didn’t…but I completely get where they’re coming from. Just drop it for now.”

*

By midday, everyone except Jared was crowded around the fire waiting eagerly for some food to be served. On an ordinary day, none of them would have been so excited at the prospect of a small helping of tinned tomato soup and a few tinned vegetables but it felt as special as Christmas dinner to them. Judging by the amount of close calls they’d had back at the house, it was a miracle that they had the time to save a little food and actually plan ahead successfully. Austin and Alan in particular were enjoying this meal, having lived off of scraps and whatever they could catch in their snares, if the Undead hadn’t beaten them to it. 

“I still don’t understand how you guys managed to survive out here without any supplies for so long,” Lauryn said in awe. 

“It was lucky that we found this place, we didn’t have to worry about sleep and basic comfort anymore and we already had some knowledge of making small snares and things like that from living out in the middle of nowhere anyway,” Austin replied modestly, “We actually left a few up, maybe we caught something. We could go check them out after this, if you like?” Ruby and Saanika were ready to agree, wanting to see the snares themselves when they realised that Austin was addressing Lauryn who had turned as red as the soup she was eating. 

“Yeah, we could do that, it’s better than hanging around here all day.” She briefly caught Saanika’s eye and stuck her tongue out in response to her discreet thumbs up. Of course there was time for love in the apocalypse, even though Lauryn was insisting that this was the smallest of crushes. 

“Do you think we ought to explore the area too? Just to make sure we know where everything nearby like berry bushes or rivers and things are?” Ruby asked Costantina in an attempt to distract her from whatever was going on with her and Jared; he hadn’t emerged from his cabin since their little fallout. Costantina just nodded and continued to drag her spoon through the soup without really eating it. 

“Well I guess we’ll stay here,” Saanika said, “Alan, maybe you can find that petrol you guys said you had and put it in our car?”

“Yeah it’s in one of the cabins. We should load the cars with some of the supplies too, just in case.” 

“I’m so proud of us guys,” Ruby announced as she added her bowl to the growing pile of washing up by one of the logs, “We made a solid plan.” 

*

With their hunger satisfied, Lauryn and Austin armed with a shotgun and a knife, were on their way to the snares. They walked away from the camp in silence for the first few minutes, neither of them sure of what to say. Usually their conversations had been centred on decisions and important group discussions but now, as they followed an overgrown path through the forest, they had the ability to talk about whatever they liked but there was just silence. Maybe this was necessary, Lauryn thought, they were hunting animals weren’t they? But then again, her conscience reminded her, those that were caught in snares probably wouldn’t care about a bit of chatter, they had bigger issues. As she followed Austin through the trees which were getting thicker and closer together, she considered all the possible conversation topics she could use. Before she had the opportunity to weigh up whether it was appropriate to discuss the current political climate of the world, she crashed into something in front of her. It was Austin.

“Shit, sorry,” Lauryn didn’t make eye contact with the taller man as she felt her face burning with embarrassment. She needed to stop daydreaming at such inappropriate times. Austin just chuckled fondly as Lauryn rubbed her nose and continued walking. 

“We’re nearly there, don’t worry.”

“Good, all these tree roots are beginning to annoy me,” Lauryn complained as she caught herself from tripping for the fifth time on this walk, “What do you usually catch in them anyway?” She was thankful to have broken the silence. 

“We’ve only used them a couple of times before so we’re not really too sure about what lives in the forest but it’s mainly been rabbits,” Lauryn nodded hoping she looked interested but in truth, she wanted to talk to Austin about other things. All this survival talk had been getting so tedious; it was all anyone talked about anymore. 

“I know, but I guess it’s all anyone thinks about these days.” Lauryn looked at Austin, confused.

“I said that out loud?” 

“Yep.”

“Oh.”

“We can talk about other things though, I’ll let you in on something,” Austin started dramatically, “I’m bored of talking about maps and the Undead as well.”

“I’d rather spend time actually trying to get to know you, and Alan,” Lauryn added hastily, “If we were hanging out this much before this happened, surely we would have talked about ourselves a bit right?”

“I suppose we would,” Austin said thoughtfully as he pulled aside a low tree branch and letting Lauryn pass under it before letting it go, “Okay so…we could play 21 questions?” Lauryn couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Austin’s suggestion of a game that just reminded her of fuckboys. Not that Austin came across as one of those but who really knew. As if he read her thoughts, Austin rushed to explain himself as they reached a small clearing.

“I’m not a fuckboy I swear, that’s Alan. It was just the first thing I thought of to get to know someone in a perfectly innocent way, that’s all. We don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Austin was almost tripping over his words, anxious to assure Lauryn that he wasn’t a simple fuckboy but someone worth her time. Lauryn found the whole thing amusing but quickly agreed to put Austin out of his misery. 

*

“Which way should we go?” Ruby asked Costantina who was carrying one of their emptied bags. They were going to go foraging in the nearby areas, there was no point in using up all of their precious tinned food too quickly, especially if they had to embark on another road trip to follow the map. It was decided that they would live off the land like Austin and Alan had for as long as they could. 

“Well, we drove in from over there so let’s go the other way and see if there’s anything interesting,” Costantina suggested. Alan had already filled them in on where the snares were and Austin and Lauryn had gone to check them out, so they knew to go a different way to cover as much ground as possible. 

“Do you think Jared’s alright?” Ruby asked as they set off through the bushes which lined the clearing. Having only moved around in the clearing, the density of the forest was difficult to manage at first but they eventually became accustomed to getting poked by branches and navigating their way around bushes which just seemed to pop up from the ground. At the mention of Jared, Costantina just shrugged. She felt like her emotions had completely turned around; she had been head over heels for him for days but after he revealed the truth about what had happened to the Ashby’s and how much information he was keeping from them, she started to find it difficult to defend his actions. She kept doing so, hoping that her lack of attraction was temporary but it was earlier that morning when everything became clear to her. When he kissed her, she felt excited as it was something she’d waited for, something she’d spent every waking moment imagining but when it happened, it all became clear to her. 

“I don’t know. He should be, it’s hard for him and I get that but he’s not making things easy for himself either,” Costantina replied surprising herself. She usually tried sticking up for Jared but at this point, it seemed pointless. If anything, she felt that it was beginning to alienate her from everyone as well, mainly Austin and Alan and if they were going to stick around, she didn’t want to cause any tension. 

“I think that’s fair,” Ruby said after considering it for a moment, “You can’t always try to justify what he does wrong…it’s a bit sad though isn’t it? That he’s not really fitting in? This whole thing is bigger than that, it’s life and death yet we’re still letting little differences split us apart.”

“Yeah but it’s not really down to us to save everyone we run into. We need to look out for ourselves first,” they stopped walking as they reached a small stream. It wasn’t deep but there was a chance that it led to a deeper part which could be used for fishing. 

“I guess you have a point,” Ruby said before changing the subject, “Do you think it’s freshwater?” Costantina shrugged and they followed the stream for a little while, waiting to catch a glimpse of a fish. 

*

“I wonder when everyone will get back,” Saanika said as she lay on one of the logs looking aimlessly up at the sky, “It hasn’t rained in a while.” 

“It wouldn’t surprise me if this apocalypse somehow managed to fuck with the weather system to be honest,” Alan said stacking the freshly washed bowls up by the fire. 

“What do you think started this?” Saanika was in some kind of philosophical mood, probably because having a moment to just rest in the peace and quiet of the forest was something that they just never had time for and the relaxation was more than welcome. Alan wasn’t feeling as relaxed though, as he slammed the last bowl on the pile, almost cracking it as he responded. 

“I don’t fucking know,” he snapped. Usually after he shut someone down like that, they left him alone to wallow but Saanika just glared at him before sitting up on the log. 

“I know that, that’s why I asked what you thought caused it, not for a fucking thesis on the causes and consequences.” Alan met her glare at that, not used to being sassed unless it was by Austin and even he knew when to stop. Saanika raised an eyebrow questioningly, waiting for a response. Realising she wasn’t going to give up, Alan sighed and sat next to her on the log, thinking for a moment.

“I really don’t know,” he said, softer this time, “It’s just something I never thought could happen, so I have no idea how this is all happening. Sometimes I wonder if it’s even real or if this is just some horrific nightmare but even nightmares don’t last this long.” 

“I know what you mean,” Saanika replied, daring to inch a tiny bit closer, “this whole thing is so weird and I have no idea how we managed to survive for this long, we’re actually shit at the apocalypse.”

“Speak for yourself,” Alan laughed, “Austin and I have been surviving quite well here. Maybe if the map thing doesn’t work out, we could all just live here and maybe build it up into a proper safe haven with walls and things…” Alan didn’t really seem like the kind of person who would imagine things like that, something so permanent and nice. He was that person who would just move around, doing whatever he needed to do and eventually fuck up somewhere, this was a strange side to him. Granted, Saanika had only known him for a couple of days so she didn’t really know him at all but this softer side was definitely unexpected judging by the amount of glares and scowls he had given off. 

“I’d rather just start working on that now, fuck the map,” Saanika giggled a bit (yes, giggling, what was becoming of her?) as she looked at Alan who was looking back. They just stared at each other for a bit. The wind was beginning to pick up a little as the day turned into late afternoon, some of the leaves lining the ground were flying around creating a mess. 

“We should do the petrol, the others will wonder what we did with this time if we forget,” Saanika said quietly as Alan was about  
to speak, “What were you saying?”

“Nothing,” Alan shook his head quickly, “I was going to suggest the same thing. Come on, let’s go get the petrol.”


	11. Chapter 11

Saanika and Alan were sitting by the car as the sun began to set. They had made sure both cars had enough petrol and moved one to the other side of the camp just in case. Realising that they probably had more time before the others returned, they had also sorted through the food. They had all been happily living off of the rest of the tinned food that they had brought from the house but supplies were running low. After going through everything, Alan came to the conclusion that they only had enough for a few more meals and that was only if they cut their portions by half which he knew nobody would be happy about.

“I hope there was something in those traps,” Alan said glancing down the path Austin and Lauryn had taken hours earlier.

“Same, and I don’t even eat rabbits or whatever gets stuck in the traps…” They fell into a silence but by now Saanika was used to it. It had become a comfortable silence – there weren’t many things to talk about, they were both sick of discussing the apocalypse and talking about their lives before was just too painful and distant. It felt like a lifetime away. 

Jared stood in the doorway of the furthest cabin, watching Saanika and Alan. He had been doing that for most of the day, just hanging out alone and observing them as they talked, laughed and sorted out the cars. They hadn’t even noticed his presence. He knew he had ruined any chances he had of becoming a part of the group and actually getting on with everyone, although he had hoped Costantina would be different. What was the point of him even sticking around? The obvious answer to that was the fact that he had the protection of a group and was able to stay in a relatively safe camp with food and supplies but from what he’d seen, they were running low and he knew that once the food was hunted and gathered, he would be left at the bottom of the food chain. It seemed that he couldn’t win, if he offered to help with the food he would probably fuck it up or be left in the camp like he was now. 

With that thought in mind, he wandered back into his cabin. His backpack was at the foot of one of the beds but there wasn’t a lot in there; an empty water bottle, a few cereal bars and a change of clothes. His gun was propped up against the bedside table, on its final round of ammunition – he hadn’t seen where everyone decided to keep the spares and he didn’t want to ask. He was done with everyone, there was no reason for him to communicate with them anymore. Picking up his gun and counting the remaining bullets – only 6 – he pocketed a cereal bar and left his cabin, walking away from the camp. 

*

“I think this is a decent haul,” Ruby said holding up the bag. She had been out scavenging for berries and edible things with Costantina for most of the day and they had managed to find a small cluster of bushes which had enough safe berries growing on it to fill their bag. Costantina reached in and pulled out a small handful to eat on the way back to camp. 

“I can’t wait to get back and have some dinner. Maybe there’s some meat in those traps Austin was talking about, I’m sick of eating tinned beans,” Costantina said. They hadn’t walked too far away from their camp so they trudged through the woods eating berries, excited at the prospect of presenting everyone with food and having a proper meal. 

“Hey guys!” someone shouted from in front of them. Ruby jumped, causing her to drop a few of the berries while Costantina   
grabbed her gun. “Chill, it’s only me.” They breathed a sigh of relief when Saanika emerged from behind some trees, then quickly scowled at her. 

“I almost shot you,” Costantina said, her tone annoyed, “Don’t do that when we’re all on edge.” Saanika just laughed a little as they reached the clearing where their camp was, “Did I scare you guys?” 

“Yes.” Ruby replied with the simple answer, “Don’t you think it’s a bit weird that we haven’t run into anything lately? I almost forgot about the Undead.”

“Don’t jinx it, the universe is just giving us a break from death. I’ll take it.” 

They reached the fire pit and placed the bag next to one of the logs and sat down. There was already a fire going which Alan was stoking with a couple more logs while Saanika filled Ruby and Costantina in on the food situation. The berries were a welcome addition to their pantry (which was just the boot of one of the cars) and they were all eagerly waiting from Austin and Lauryn to return with a rabbit or something. After a few words were exchanged, they fell into a silence which was becoming a recurring thing. 

“This is boring. I never thought I’d be bored during something as intense and scary as an apocalypse but seriously, we should have brought something to do,” Saanika complained as she lay upside down on one of the logs. They had all taken their guns off, they were getting heavy and it wasn’t like they’d need them immediately. Leaning against one of the cars, they were all reachable. Everyone just mumbled in agreement.

“Guys,” Saanika whined, “We should do something.”

“There isn’t anything to do,” Ruby pointed out as she twisted blades of grass in her hands. 

“I need to wash my hair,” Costantina announced, “There’s no way to do that though. I wish we were more prepared when we left   
the house.”

“We didn’t have time,” Ruby replied. 

“Let’s go back,” Alan spoke up for the first time in a while. Nobody replied, considering what he had suggested. 

“It was overrun though, there’s no way we’d be able to. Anyway what would the point be, it’ll all be gross with the Undead.”

“Plus we have the map to follow,” Ruby added.

“Do we even know where it leads?” Costantina opened her mouth to reply but Alan cut her off, “I know it’s somewhere in Manchester but we don’t know where exactly or what it is so what’s the point of following it just to be disappointed?”

“You’re such a pessimist oh my gosh,” Saanika commented as she sat up, “It gives us a tiny bit of hope and something to aim for at least.” Alan rolled his eyes and went into one of the cabins, mumbling about going to have a lie down.

Half an hour later, he emerged and joined everyone by the fire as they waited for Austin and Lauryn to come back. The snares were quite far away from the camp so nobody was concerned with how long they were taking, the wait was just boring.   
“Let’s play I Spy,” Saanika suggested. Ruby and Costantina agreed half-heartedly, there wasn’t anything better to do, but Alan frowned and stood up. 

“I should have stayed in the cabin,” he grumbled as he turned to walk off. Before he could get away, Saanika grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down onto the log so he was next to her.

“You’re staying here too, don’t go off and sit alone again.” Alan rolled his eyes but gave a small smile despite himself.

“Hey guys?” Costantina started, “Where’s Jared?”

*

Jared had been walking aimlessly for hours, stumbling over stray tree roots as his gun swung unhelpfully from his shoulder. The cereal bar wrapper was sitting in his pocket, despite this apocalypse he wasn’t going to litter in the woods. He briefly wondered if anyone had noticed his departure but he didn’t have very high hopes. Maybe they’d realise when he failed to turn up for dinner or something but he doubted they would lose sleep over it. 

He knew that the second he revealed the truth about everything that had happened at the Ashby’s house all those weeks ago, Austin and Alan would hate him and that was understandable to Jared but he didn’t expect everyone else to turn on him. Then again, he thought, there was always a bit of hostility towards him but he supposed that his optimism and hope that they’d come around was pointless. His thoughts were interrupted by a small rustling sound. Jared thought nothing of it, assuming it was a small animal and continued on his way.

There was no plan, no destination in his mind except that he wanted to be as far away from that camp as possible. The emotions and hardships that had occurred there were too much for him; aside from the general awkwardness he felt in a group that pretty much hated him, it was also the place where he idiotically believed that something existed between him and Costantina, where he was the one who had to shoot Cerys to stop her turning into the Undead. Another rustling came from behind Jared, then from in front of him. He was beginning to worry now, surely that wasn’t all from the wind? There wasn’t even that much wind. 

He slowed down to a stop and pointed his gun in front of him, painfully aware of the fact that he only had six bullets left. “Fuck fuck fuck,” he whispered, suddenly regretting leaving. It was too late to turn back now, he realised as he heard a loud groan behind him. Jared turned and found himself face to face with one of the Undead. Its face was almost completely decomposed; it wasn’t as fresh as the ones he had seen back at the Ashby’s house. Remnants of clothes hung off its body but there was no need for it because it was literally missing an arm. Jared was frozen but as it stumbled closer to him he could smell the flesh and guts on its breath which brought him back to reality as he took a step back, shaking. He turned around to run but was soon met with another two figures emerging from the bushes, coming right for him. 

In a panic, he raised his gun and shot them both in the head before turning and shooting the one with the missing arm. For a moment he was relieved and allowed himself a few seconds to breathe before he ran down the path he hoped would take him back to camp. As he ran, the previously silent woods came to life around him; the Undead had been attracted by his gunshots and were coming out of the trees. A few hands missed him by a millimetre as he ran, not looking back. He was running out of breath as he willed his legs not to give out as they were already aching. He wondered what the others would do when he reached camp, a dishevelled mess with a group of the Undead after him. He didn’t even know how many there were but he was sure he didn’t have enough bullets to deal with them. Suddenly his foot caught on a root causing him to stumble, losing his balance before falling. 

The Undead had always seemed relatively slow, as if they were easy to outrun but as he lay on his stomach trying to stay calm and stand up, Jared realised that there was no way he could make it back. He screamed out as a hand grabbed his ankle in a death grip, pulling him. Trying to pull his leg free, Jared kicked the creature’s face but it didn’t loosen its grip – they didn’t feel pain. Deciding this was an emergency, he shot once and the hand let go. Just as Jared felt a surge of hope as he tried to get up, he heard a human voice screaming and shouting in the distance. Did he lead them back to the camp? Would someone be able to help him? Before he could cry out, the voice quietened and what he could only describe as a horde of the Undead wandered closer to him.

It was hopeless at this point, he had two bullets left which he fired pathetically, knowing that it would make no difference. As the closest Undead got closer, grabbing onto his legs again and crawling over to him, he regretted not saving one of those bullets for himself. That was one of his final conscious thoughts as the group engulfed him and began to tear his body apart, in a desperate bid to get at his flesh.

*

“They’re going to be so happy when we bring this lot back,” Lauryn said smiling, holding up three rabbits that had been snared. Austin had another two strapped to his belt and Lauryn decided to do the same, surprised at how heavy they actually were. 

“They better be, I’m so tired. I forgot how far the snares actually were. It’s getting dark too,” Austin pointed out. The sky had turned a dull shade of blue, no longer the bright colour it had been when they set off. 

“It’s probably late afternoon or something by now…let’s get back quickly and cook these up.” Lauryn followed Austin back the way they had come, thankful that he knew it like the back of his hand in relative darkness as well as during the day. They walked through the woods continuing their second game of 21 questions when they heard a loud bang coming from the woods in front of them. Before they could react, there were two more. They both raised their guns and checked their ammunition before creeping closer. They had no choice but to go towards the sound, it was the way back. 

“What was that?” Lauryn whispered, “Guns?” Austin didn’t say anything but nodded as they tried to move quietly through the leaves. 

“They might have come from camp, something could have happened we have to hurry,” Lauryn spoke quickly, almost forgetting to whisper in her panic. Austin shook his head quickly and turned to look at Lauryn, hoping she’d calm down.   
“It wasn’t from camp,” he mumbled, “We’re still about a mile away from there, these sounded a lot closer.” Before Lauryn could respond, there was another shot, closer this time.

“Oh my god,” Austin said, not bothering to whisper as three of the Undead crawled out from the trees in front of them, “The shots are attracting them, don’t shoot and just run.” Lauryn didn’t wait to be told twice as she followed Austin as he ran to the left, leaving the Undead to follow. Austin was a few metres ahead, only stopping at the sound of Lauryn screaming and yelling behind him. He quickly turned and saw two more creatures had appeared in between them. They were almost surrounding Lauryn, he had to act fast. 

Acting completely on impulse, Austin hit the two between them with the end of his gun momentarily distracting them as he pulled Lauryn in front of him. “Run!” Lauryn had no idea which way to go but she didn’t care at this point, they just needed to get away. They couldn’t tell if this was a large horde like the one which attacked the house but they needed to get back to camp as soon as they could. After a few minutes of running and panting, they stopped by a small river.

“Are you okay?” Austin asked hurriedly as he scanned Lauryn’s body for any injuries or worse. She nodded quickly, shouldering her gun again. “I wonder who that was shooting back there…”

“You don’t think it was one of us right?” Lauryn asked, fearing the answer. She knew that Ruby and Costantina had been out of the camp as well but she hoped they had got back earlier.

“I don’t know…I hope not. We’re close to camp now, let’s just go back and see.” Neither of them said anything after that, both of them wondering if the horde had already reached their friends. If things got bad they would have heard more shots right? They knew not to shoot unless it was an emergency but they were sure that if there was danger their friends would save no bullets in trying to defend themselves. 

“They wouldn’t have just left would they?” Austin asked, unsure of what to expect. Lauryn wasn’t sure how to answer. Ideally she would have insisted that they wouldn’t leave without them but she also knew that if the camp was attacked she’d want everyone to get away as quickly as they could. She didn’t say anything as they reached the final line of trees before the camp.

*

“Jared?” Saanika asked, “I haven’t seen him all day, I thought he went out scavenging with you two actually.”

“No, he definitely stayed here as far as I know.” Saanika shrugged it off and started berating Alan for breaking the rules of I Spy (“you can’t choose yourself!”). 

“Guys shut up,” Ruby said harshly. Saanika looked at her, slightly taken aback. She was about to question it when she heard two gunshots firing. 

“Who’s shooting?”

“Could it be Lauryn and Austin?” 

“Fucking hell.”

There was a moment of panic as they all retrieved their guns and waited. 

“I’ll make sure this car is prepped,” Costantina said quietly, going silently over to the nearest and switching it on. She was silently shitting herself. There were a few minutes of silence and Ruby was beginning to wonder if it was over when more shots rang out. They didn’t sound too far away but at this point nobody was concerned about the fact that it could be strangers shooting, they were worried about Lauryn and Austin, as well as the Undead that the shots would attract. 

“Ruby you stay here with Costantina, we’ll go to the other car in case Lauryn and Austin return from that way,” Alan suggested and without waiting for a response he and Saanika went over to the other car, turning it on and waiting in a tense silence, guns raised. 

“Guys?” a voice shouted from behind Ruby. She quickly turned and saw Lauryn and Austin running towards her, rabbits hanging forgotten from their belts. 

“Oh my god you’re okay!” Ruby ran over and engulfed Lauryn in a hug. Lauryn quickly pulled away and explained what had happened in a hurry.

“We need to leave now.” They were just about to go to the car when a group of the Undead burst through the trees, trampling the fire pit and crawling up over the logs. They could hear Saanika and Alan yelling and shooting so it was obvious that they were getting overrun in their side.

Costantina was already in the driver’s seat with Ruby clambering into the passenger side while firing at the horde that was surrounding the camp. “Lauryn! Austin! Get in the fucking car!” Lauryn and Austin were still firing at the Undead around Alan and Saanika’s car, trying to offer a distraction so they could get inside and drive away. At the moment, Saanika was sitting on the bonnet shooting into the woods and Alan was almost at the driver side door. Noticing that the other car hadn’t moved away yet, Saanika looked over for a moment and gestured for them to leave. 

“We got this!” she yelled, hoping they would leave, “I think.” With a final look at them, Lauryn turned around and grabbed Austin’s arm and together they rushed to the waiting car. As soon as they shut their doors, Costantina drove off, trying to block out the yells of her friends back at the camp.


	12. Chapter 12

“Shit,” Costantina muttered as she followed the path out of the woods. They had long since outrun the Undead, they were ambling around somewhere between the trees, a forgotten threat. For them at least. 

“I know…what should we do?” Lauryn asked. They had never discussed what would happen if they were separated or had to split up and now Jared was missing somewhere while Saanika and Alan were still stuck at the camp. 

“This is why we need to plan things guys,” Ruby sighed as she checked her gun ammunition for the second time since they left the camp. Costantina turned and drove off the path, finally joining the road that they had taken to find the woods a week ago. 

“It feels weird being back out here again,” Austin muttered taking in the sight of the tarmac road and the unnatural glow of the street lamps which hadn’t stopped working yet. It was completely dark, Costantina could barely see the road in front of her as she drove but she didn’t dare switch on the headlights – if the Undead didn’t notice, someone worse might. 

“We got so used to being in the woods and living in relative peace somehow that this just feels wrong.” Austin kept watching over his shoulder from time to time, at first it seemed that he was checking to make sure that the car wasn’t being followed by the Undead but after twenty minutes of panicked driving, it was clear that they were safe. It became obvious what he was looking for – Alan’s car. It was easy for the others to briefly forget that they were brothers, given that they had such opposite traits and personalities. 

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Lauryn said quietly so only Austin would hear her, “They’ll both be fine.” She tentatively placed her hand over his, waiting for his reaction. He just smiled weakly and took her hand in his. Despite the seriousness of their current situation, Lauryn allowed herself a few moments of uninterrupted private joy at this before returning to the matter at hand.

“How will they find us? Even if they wanted to follow the map, which Alan was uncertain about doing anyway, they can’t because we have it.” 

“Hopefully they turn this way if they get out,” Costantina said, quickly correcting herself when she felt the pointed glares coming from her passengers, “When they get out, I mean.” 

“What if they go the other way though? It’s dark, they’ll probably be scared shitless so I doubt they’d be making very informed decisions, what if they just panic and go back the way we came before?” Ruby asked. She had a valid point and everyone knew it. 

“I don’t even know. What do we do?” Costantina asked, looking in the rear-view mirror and directing her question to Lauryn and Austin who had both been quiet. Their hands were still in the same place but their fingers had intertwined. Costantina would have loved to make fun of it but it was not the time. 

“Well we can’t just abandon them,” Austin insisted and Lauryn agreed, “And anyway, what about Jared? He’s still out there somewhere right?”

“Details, details,” Lauryn muttered, “Wait, what if he was the one doing the shooting? We’ve established that it wasn’t us and it wasn’t you guys…did he see the horde coming and try to deal with it? Or maybe his shots attracted more and this is all his fault, again.” Lauryn was talking very quickly without even pausing for breath, excited at her breakthrough.

“To be honest, I never thought I’d say this but who really cares? If he got into some kind of predicament it’s kind of his fault for wandering off himself anyway. And if you’re right and he did cause this then I don’t give a shit what happens to him, especially because right now Saanika and my brother are still there and we don’t even know if they’re still alive. He’s already managed to kill my parents and now his stupidity caused this,” Austin rambled angrily. 

“Damn,” Ruby said. There was a pause as everyone deliberated on how to respond to that. 

“I guess we should just park on the side of the road somewhere for the night and wait in case they come this way. If they don’t…” Lauryn trailed off awkwardly.

“If they don’t then we can check the other way, it’s not like we’re on a schedule or anything we just need to be mindful of the petrol,” Costantina finished for her. Nobody mentioned the other possibility.

*

Shots rang out across the clearing and deeper into the woods as Saanika and Alan kept shooting at the waves of the Undead. They didn’t seem to be stopping, an endless supply of groaning, limbless corpses crawled and limped towards them. It seemed like they were doing well, shooting before they came too close but the sound was causing their problem. The path out of the camp was blocked with the Undead but those ones were preoccupied with following the car which had sped off through the woods. It wouldn’t distract them for long though; as soon as the car was far enough away, odds were that they would turn around and return to the camp. They didn’t have much time.

“How are we literally on top of a car but we still can’t escape please?” Saanika asked, trying to sound calm but there was a clear tone of panic as she slid off the bonnet and ran over to Alan to shoot at the corpses trying to surround him. 

“Because the car is shit!” Alan was growing angry with the car. It was an older model and needed the key to be put into a lock on the doors and turned in a specific way before it would unlock, but given the fact that he had been shooting in order not to die and the general gravity of the situation, it had not been going well. At all. 

“I bet you picked it,” Saanika mumbled, silently wondering why she decided to roast Alan in that critical moment. It could easily have been the last thing she said to him as she didn’t notice one of the Undead approaching her from the side, being distracted by her roasts and shooting other ones. Alan heard the dangerously close groans and quickly spun around shooting it, but dropping the car keys. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake, concentrate for a minute and let me do the car,” Alan whined, reaching down to get the keys but realising they had fallen a little under the car. 

“I am concentrating, maybe I’ll concentrate a little less though and let one of them bite your ass,” Saanika replied irritably, “Oh by the way I’m out of ammunition, just thought you should know.” Alan quickly got up, abandoning his search for the keys in favour of being the sole shooter and keeping the Undead at bay. 

“Get the keys,” Alan said without stopping the shooting; it was getting difficult to keep up, more and more were descending on the camp like wolves finding a freshly dead carcass. While Alan attempted to keep the Undead at bay, Saanika dropped down and fumbled under the car for the lost keys, silently wishing they hadn’t moved the cars in the first place. It seemed smart then but this was just tedious. Just as she closed her hand around the cold metal of the keys, she heard a cry of pain. 

“Um are you okay?” she asked as she pulled the door open and jumped in, quickly crawling over the gear stick to the passenger seat as Alan hobbled in after her quickly. He slammed the door shut, cringing as the head of one of the Undead got trapped in the door causing blood to splatter the entire interior of the car, and Alan. 

“I’m good,” Alan breathed as they both took a moment to rest in the relative safety of the car. Saanika reached behind her and grabbed another clip of ammunition for her gun while Alan braced himself to look down at his leg. His jeans were completely covered in blood, not all of it was his but a good amount of it was. He managed to pull enough of it up to get a look at the wound, silently praying it wasn’t a bite.

*

“Park here I guess,” Austin suggested as they reached a road sign. The small light above it still shone alongside the street lights so the car was visible to anyone who wandered along the road. Costantina pulled over and turned the car off. 

“How should we do this?” Ruby asked, “Maybe two of us should stay awake while the others sleep?” 

“Sounds good but I’m really not sleepy,” Lauryn said as she yawned and leaned over so she was resting her head on Austin’s  
shoulder. 

“You sure about that?” Austin asked, amused. Lauryn nodded stubbornly and Austin chuckled. Costantina and Ruby were watching through the mirror, occasionally making eye contact with each other and trying not to squeal like fangirls. After a moment, they realised that Austin and Lauryn were going to continue to ignore their presence, not that they minded, so they decided to go and get some food for everyone from the boot. At least they remembered to pack the berries. 

“How long do you think we’ll wait here?” Austin whispered, poking Lauryn’s shoulder. She shrugged.

“I want to say however long it takes them to get here or for us to find them but realistically…I can’t.” Austin nodded in understanding. If he was in Alan’s place he’d likely want everyone else to stick around while it was safe and then carry on. There was no point in putting everyone in danger especially if there was a horde in the woods which would probably move in the same direction as them. He wondered if Alan would feel the same way. 

*

“What happened?” Saanika asked in concern as she took in the amount of blood that was still gushing out of Alan’s leg. She leaned down to get a closer look, mindful of the steering wheel above her, “It’s not a bite is it?”

“No,” Alan replied softly and she breathed a sigh of relief, “It’s just a scratch, and I mean an actual scratch, not a life-threatening injury like in Romeo and Juliet.”

“Okay good, don’t die just yet please.” 

“I don’t plan to.” Saanika stared at Alan for a while as he covered his leg up again, making sure to remember to bandage it when they were safe. She knew this was a bad time but she couldn’t help but appreciate how attractive he was, even when he was slightly covered in blood and smelled a bit like rotting flesh. Nobody’s perfect after all, she thought. 

“…should really be here.” 

“What?” Saanika didn’t hear what he was saying, this was getting really bad. She had almost forgotten about the Undead surrounding the car, completely distracted by Alan. He was a very distracting person. 

“I said, Austin should really be here.”

“Why?” Alan didn’t respond for a few moments and sat watching as the horde grew , the nearest of which were clawing angrily at the windows, unaware of pieces of their flesh which were smearing all over the glass. They were only interested in one thing and that was the prospect of feeding on the two who remained silent in the car.

“It’s complicated,” Alan paused and Saanika assumed he was going to leave it there but then Alan continued, a torrent of words escaping his mouth like water flooding through an open dam, “He just…I don’t know, it just feels like he always has a solution to everything even before this all happened and I keep on thinking about how I’d survive without him there, he’s the one who figures shit out.” Once he had started, there was no stopping him so Saanika let him rant for a bit while trying to think of a suitable supportive response that didn’t contain an accidental insult.

“Do you know what I mean?” He had started waving his hands around wildly, “I just know that if he was in this situation he wouldn’t have let it get this bad, he survived out there with Lauryn didn’t he? And look at us, stuck in a car because I dropped the fucking keys and couldn’t get us out in time. Our blood is already on my hands if we do die, which is looking likely.” 

Damn, Saanika thought. 

*

An hour had passed and the berries were making their third way around, being passed around the car in silence. Lauryn had fallen asleep on Austin, who was carefully eating a berry while trying not to move in case he woke her. He really needed to stretch his shoulder though. 

“How long do you think we should stay?” Ruby wondered out loud, asking the question that no one had dared to voice. They didn’t want to suggest leaving Alan and Saanika behind because it finalised the idea that they hadn’t made it. Austin’s expression changed from calm to annoyed and Ruby noticed his jaw do That Thing (Lauryn would be disappointed she missed that).

“They’re going to get out, maybe they’re on their way now.” He spoke with such confidence but his voice cracked a little at the end, betraying his emotions. He really wanted to believe that in a few minutes he’d look out of the rear view mirror and see two headlights swerving slightly from side to side on the road, indicating that his brother was driving. Alan never did learn to drive in a straight line. 

“Let’s at least stay until morning,” Costantina said tiredly. Everyone was exhausted both mentally and physically, but they had to stay alert in case another horde arrived, “For now, let’s change the subject. What do you think happened to Jared?”

“The horde probably got him,” Austin said emotionlessly, still staring unblinking at the mirror, “Nobody could survive that alone, especially him.” There was a silence again, it seemed like an everlasting trend in their group these days. 

“Can we change the subject again?” Ruby asked. 

Costantina thought for a moment before speaking up, smiling for the first time that day, “Do you remember when we first decided on getting a squad house? We never thought it would actually happen…”

*

Five Years Ago

It was mid-afternoon, sometime in spring and the topic of discussion had moved on from some kind of debate or rant to imagining what it would be like to all live together, full time under the same roof. Cerys’ living room was full of life as she returned from the kitchen with bowls of crisps and sweets. There had probably been a half day at school or something, so everyone was lounging around chatting. 

Cerys took a seat by the window as pretty much all of the sofas were taken. While they were waiting for Cerys to return with the food, someone had brought up the idea of sharing a house. Not in real life of course, that was too much of an unrealistic concept for a group of fifteen year olds. 

“I’m going to look up house prices guys,” Saanika announced grabbing her phone, thankful that she already had Cerys’ WiFi password. Ruby followed suit and together they began searching for the perfect place. 

“Maybe not in London, it’s fucking expensive,” Lauryn added as she contemplated other methods of saving money, “Do we really need curtain poles? We could just use string.” Shock rippled through the room.

“Of course we need curtain poles!” Costantina exclaimed passionately as she leant forward to get some crisps, “Don’t they come with the house sometimes anyway?” she wondered. Cerys stood up to fetch a notebook and began taking notes on the furniture that would be needed, while Saanika and Ruby abandoned their search.

“I did see a good one which wasn’t too expensive though,” Saanika said, “It had a breakfast bar and everything.”

“We do not need a breakfast bar,” Lauryn declared stubbornly. 

“But it comes with the house.”

“We’re getting rid of it.” 

“Where do we eat then?” 

“A dining table?” Costantina offered. Lauryn glared at her and muttered something about it being a waste of money too. 

“Can we have somewhere to store the alcohol?” Cerys asked, mulling over her notes. 

“Of course.” As a group, some of them did have weird priorities. 

*

As Costantina told the story, she and Ruby smiled at the past, Lauryn joining them when she woke up at the mention of the curtain rails. Even Austin had allowed himself to be distracted from his mirror watching for long enough to appreciate this relic of a tale. 

“Were all of your conversations like that?” he wondered, amused.

“Like what?” Ruby asked.

“All innocent but then leading into debate.”

“Yes,” Costantina asserted at the same time as Lauryn offered a strong ‘no’.

The tense atmosphere in the car had all but vanished and there was the occasional laugh or smile which felt out of place given the situation, although it was a welcome distraction. Sensing that the mood would turn sombre again if they let their minds wander back to the events of the day, Lauryn brought up the time she had confidently thrown her near-empty Starbucks cup into a bin, only to find that it was full of water and cleaning fluids a cleaner was planning on using. They continued to share stories into the night, occasionally their eyes wandered to the mirror but they decided to focus on the happy things, at least until the sun rose the next morning.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a million years but I'm back now

“Let’s see if we can get through this horde,” Alan said breaking the silence. After he had spilled his guts in a frenzy, Saanika remained silent, unsure of how to respond. She wasn’t good at reassurance or encouraging people when they suddenly revealed their darkest insecurities with no warning. It was especially stressful when she had what was sure to be a solid crush on them and wanted to comfort them, not knowing how. The horde of the Undead surrounding the car also wasn’t helping. 

“The clearing’s full of them, I can’t even see the cabins.” The sea of the Undead was getting so deep at this point that the car was almost completely surrounded, the deepest parts being the front and the windows next to Alan and Saanika’s seats, “I’ll just accelerate and hope for the best,” Alan decided.

“That works.” Saanika held onto her almost-empty gun as Alan started the car, causing a rush of movement from the Undead around the car. Maybe they’ll go away now, Alan thought as he stepped on the pedals, revving the car before getting ready to drive through the group. The swarm around them, especially the ones surrounding the engine began to growl more intensely, almost excitedly. 

Their excitement, along with Alan and Saanika’s hope to get out of the clearing alive, was short-lived. The car hummed for a moment but didn’t shoot forwards like they were hoping. Alan looked at the steering wheel in confusion before pushing the accelerator down again, all the way. The car spluttered this time, but still refused to move. 

“Oh my god,” Saanika whispered. She and Alan looked at each other in fear for the first time since the horde attacked them. Their main plan was to hold them off until they could get safely in the car and drive away but now, it looked like that was far from possible. Alan’s eyes were wide and he was muttering encouragement to the car under his breath as he kept revving the engine over and over in the hope that the car would start. The Undead seemed to double around them as the sounds of the car attracted more, the ones who had been there since the beginning were starting to claw at the windows and each other in desperation. 

“Fuck!” Alan yelled in frustration, hitting the steering wheel in anger and accidentally pressing the horn. A shrill sound filled the clearing, louder than the collective groans of the Undead. “Shit, sorry.”

Saanika glared at him, “What are we going to do?” she asked, successfully refraining from chewing Alan out for hitting the horn and attracting everything – alive or dead – from a mile away. She knew there wasn’t a lot that they could do; their guns were pretty much useless without any ammunition (which had all been left in the other car), and now they couldn’t even leave their piece of shit, rust bucket of a car. 

“Do you think they can, I don’t know, break the glass or something?” Alan wondered, glancing out of the windows at the crowd of Undead filling up the once tranquil clearing. The ones closest to the windows were relentless, groaning and pushing against the glass as the ones from behind pushed forward, creating a mass of bodies intent on getting in the car.

“I sure as fuck hope not.” Saanika paused, looking down at Alan’s bloodstained leg, “We should find a way to bandage that, at least until we meet the others again.” They still hadn’t given up hope on reuniting with everyone else, certain that they would wait on the main road for as long as they could. If they did have to leave, they had to run into each other again soon, right? Alan didn’t say anything, he just nodded in agreement. 

“What can we use?” Saanika mumbled to herself, looking around inside the car for something relatively clean to use. 

“Uh, bandages?” Alan suggested helpfully, reaching over to the glove compartment with a small wince. He popped it open and pulled out a first aid box full of bandages and various pills. 

“Since when was that there?” 

“When Austin and I left home we left a few emergency things in the car, I think this is an emergency.” He took out a bandage and some sort of anti-infection wipe before closing  
the box and placing it back in the glove compartment. 

“Okay…so…you’re sure you weren’t bitten?” Saanika asked, looking through the tear in Alan’s jeans at the wound. It didn’t look like a bite, it seemed too small for that. The skin around it was red and slightly inflamed but she was sure that it would be fine after a few days. 

“Yes, quite sure,” Alan said, sounding a little annoyed, “I think it just got caught on a branch or something from the bushes by the car,” he explained, looking at his leg closely before suddenly pulling the lever on the side of his seat, letting it roll all the way back giving him more room. Saanika wondered why he had done that for a moment, but it became clear a second later when Alan unbuckled his belt and pulled his jeans off. 

“Oh my god. I mean…I…okay.” Saanika cringed at her reaction, silently yelling at herself in her head as Alan grinned at her. 

“Need to get this clean somehow,” he explained, trying not to laugh at her reaction, or the fact that her eyes wouldn’t meet his. Not because she was shy or anything, but because she was busy taking in the tattoos that went up and down his legs, “I might need a hand though,” he said, getting her attention again. She had turned bright red. 

“Yes okay…good. I can do that.” She took the bandage from Alan and began to unwrap it while he cleaned the wound as best he could with the wipe, “Team work,” Saanika muttered. 

Once Alan’s leg was bandaged up, he pulled his jeans back on as Saanika tried (and failed) to hide a small pout. She didn’t have a chance to finish checking out his tattoos. “Now what?” she asked, sitting back in her seat, watching the Undead. 

“I guess we could…talk? About things?” Alan suggested weakly, shrugging when Saanika looked at him questioningly, “I mean, I’ve sort of opened up a little bit so I don’t think its weird to talk to you anymore.” 

“Thanks…I think?” Saanika wasn’t sure if that was a compliment but she was happy that Alan was willing to talk. It would have been a slow and awkward death if it was in total silence. 

About half an hour later, the mood in the car had shifted from hopelessness. It wasn’t exactly happy, given that they were still trapped in the middle of a horde and their friends had no idea whether they’d live or die (they didn’t either), but it was definitely higher in spirits. Their conversation had been going all over the place, from their pasts before the apocalypse to things like music and everything they’d enjoyed before. It was interesting for them to learn more about each other, nobody seemed to talk about the past anymore, it seemed like a distant memory, a place they would never return to. The world had changed before their eyes and they were so unprepared for it. 

“Will they ever go away?” Alan groaned, leaning his head against the window as he watched the Undead trying to claw their way into the car. He straightened up, trying to stretch his tired legs wincing as he disturbed his cut. They had been stuck in the car for what felt like forever, but it had only been an hour or so. 

“Who knows? Aren’t they bored yet?” Saanika said, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face as she fought to stay awake. Usually, they would have all been sound asleep in their cabins by now but the Undead still hadn’t given up on them, occasionally groaning outside the windows. 

“They need something to distract them, so we can get out at least,” Alan said tiredly, “Something else needs to make a noise or disturb them. Until then…who knows.” The clearing was still completely overrun, there was no way one of them could get out and create a distraction without becoming a meal. 

“Well, this is fun.” 

*

“Guys, I can’t sleep,” Ruby announced, sitting straighter in her seat and stretching as best she could in the cramped car. She looked around, noticing that everyone was fast asleep. Costantina was resting her head on the window, curled up in her seat while Lauryn and Austin were pretty much using each other as pillows. “Awww,” Ruby cooed. At least they were able to get some rest, she thought. It wouldn’t be helpful if they were all sleep deprived when Alan and Saanika returned. If they returned. 

They all tried to stay optimistic for each other when they were discussing their likelihood of returning but now that she thought about it, Ruby wasn’t sure that they would return. If they were going to, surely that would have been here hours ago. Costantina hadn’t driven too far away from the camp, only around an hour before they deemed it safe to stop. Saanika and Alan were in their own car as well, all they needed to do was drive through the horde and make it out here alive. The fact that they hadn’t yet returned led Ruby to believe that something had gone very wrong. Maybe the car stopped working, or they never made it into the car before the Undead got them. The last time she saw them, Alan was standing by the door trying to open it while Saanika was on the bonnet trying to keep the Undead away. 

“Hey,” Ruby jumped slightly, turning around. Austin was rubbing his eyes, looking around. He glanced at Ruby questioningly after he didn’t see Alan’s car parked outside. Ruby just shook her head, her heart breaking for a moment at Austin’s defeated expression. 

“Can’t we go back?” Austin asked.

“The camp was overrun Austin,” Ruby sighed, looking through the back window at the grey morning sky, “Even if we went back, we still might not find them. They might have  
driven the other way, or escaped into the woods.” She didn’t mention the last possibility. 

“We shouldn’t have left them,” his voice began to rise, “We could have shot some of the Undead, at least distracted them enough so that they could get in the car or something. We  
shouldn’t have just…abandoned them.” Lauryn stirred in Austin’s arms but he made no effort to lower his voice. 

“What’s going on?” she mumbled, not opening her eyes, “They back yet?” 

“No.” Lauryn sat up, looking outside the window and sighing as Costantina, hearing the talking, woke up in the driver’s seat. 

“What are we going to do?” Ruby asked as birds starting to sing outside. It was almost like a normal day.

“I say we go back, as far as we can at least,” Austin said, holding Lauryn’s hand tightly as if it was a lifeline. There were unshed tears shining in his eyes as he waited for everyone’s response. It was hard not to feel bad for him, there was a chance that he’d just lost the last remaining family he had. 

“I agree, we might even run into them on the way back,” Lauryn said. The statement was hopeful but there was little hope in her tone; she was trying to stay optimistic for Austin, who looked like he was on the verge of breaking down at any second. 

“If they survived, they must have gone the wrong way. They had a car, if they came this way we would have heard them, it’s so quiet,” Costantina reasoned, “But they wouldn’t have gone back the other way, towards the Ashby’s house. They knew we wouldn’t go back that way, it was overrun.”

“What if we can’t find them when we get there?” Ruby asked nobody in particular, “The Undead might still be there and we might not have enough petrol to go all the way back and continue back this way afterwards…” Before she could finish, there was a flurry of response from Lauryn and Austin as they tried to convince Ruby that they had to go back, that Saanika and Alan had to be alive somewhere. 

“Guys…I don’t know. They should have been here by now…” Costantina stated, siding with Ruby. 

“Well fine then,” Austin said, his voice laced with annoyance, “We’ll just go and check ourselves.” Before they could respond, he had pushed the car door open, grabbed his gun and Lauryn’s hand as they left the car. 

“You can’t just leave!” Ruby cried through her open window, finally opening it and following them out of the car with Costantina trailing behind her.

“Why not? That’s his brother and our friend out there, and you guys aren’t even trying to go and help them. What if they’re hurt or something? There’s loads of reasons why they haven’t got back here yet,” Lauryn exclaimed, still holding Austin’s hand. She looked down at their intertwined fingers and pulled away, embarrassed, but as soon as she did that, Austin reached out for her hand again and just nodded at her. If the situation wasn’t so dire, Lauryn would have squealed or something. 

“What about us?” Costantina asked, “We can’t just split up like this.” 

“Then come with us,” Austin was almost pleading now, “Please?”

Ruby paused for a second, taking in Austin’s expression and Lauryn’s determination before glancing at Costantina, “Do we have enough petrol?” Costantina nodded but explained that they could only go as far as the camp before turning back in order to preserve the fuel for longer. They had no idea how far they were from a petrol station, or even if they would be working. 

“Okay, let’s go.”


	14. Chapter 14

After talking about meaningless things for a few hours, Saanika and Alan had managed to fall asleep, even though they were trapped in a car surrounded by the Undead. They hadn’t thought of a way out, or anything productive, although Alan had tried to start the car again several times. All it did was rile up the Undead more. They allowed themselves a few hours of rest after they felt confident that the windows wouldn’t shatter under the weight of all the corpses. 

It was the next morning now, and the sun was beginning to beat down on the small clearing. It had to be around midday when Saanika stirred under the sunlight. For a moment, she was confused and wondering why she was sleeping in the uncomfortable front seat of a car instead of the cabin beds. It was only when Alan let out a small snore beside her, almost mirroring the groan of the Undead by her window that she remembered everything. Were the others going to come back for them? Or did they decide to continue on their journey without them? The very thought made her feel sick. She knew she told them that she and Alan could handle this alone but that wasn’t an invitation for them to just up and leave. 

“Alan,” she said, poking his cheek trying to wake him up. It didn’t take more than three pokes before he opened his eyes to glare at her, but his expression softened as she laughed at his expression. How could she laugh in this situation? 

“What?” he grumbled, sitting up and checking outside the window. 

“I’m hungry.”

“So am I, but there’s no food in here. The other car had it all.”

“Not even in the glove compartment?”

“Nope.”

“Fuck.”

“We need to do something,” Alan decided a few moments later, “At least try to get out of here.”

“Okay…how?” Saanika asked. She had been thinking of ways to get out for hours yesterday night, it was always in the back of her mind. But the crowd outside was so dense that there was no way they could even open the doors because of the weight. There was no sunroof or anything and smashing the windscreen would only let in a few of the Undead who would bite them in a second. There was no way out.

Alan was about to answer with his usual snarky reply of “I don’t fucking know,” when Saanika noticed his eyes grow wider as he looked at something behind her. He looked scared. 

“What is it?” she asked, slowly turning to look behind her before waiting for him to respond, “Oh shit.” 

There was a large crack across the window. The pressure from the Undead was getting too much for the old car to handle. “It’s going to break,” Saanika whispered, her voice full of fear as she tried to figure out what to do. Another smaller crack appeared, followed by another. 

“Quick, the backseat!” Alan cried, clambering over the gearstick and jumping in the back of the car. Saanika shuffled back so she was in between the front seats and reached for Alan as she watched the glass shatter. Hands reached in trying to grab whatever they could. There was a scream. And then silence. 

Saanika opened her eyes after a few moments. She was alive? There was something kind of soft under her, or rather, someone. Looking up, she saw Alan staring down at her. He had managed to pull her back from the window into the backseat, just as the hands broke through. 

Nobody said anything for a few seconds, there was just the sound of the two of them breathing heavily, trying to recover from what had just happened. The window. The glass. The screaming. That probably didn’t help in terms of attracting more Undead but that wasn’t a huge issue given that they were already surrounded. 

“I can’t believe you screamed,” Alan broke the silence, he didn’t sound angry, but amused. 

“It was scary, okay?” Saanika replied, her voice still shaking a little. She didn’t seem bothered about the fact that she was practically on Alan’s lap right now, she just wanted to be as far away from the broken window as possible. 

“Yeah, it was,” Alan agreed, “I’m...uh…I’m glad you didn’t like…die.” 

“Wow, so articulate,” Saanika smiled. 

“I just meant that I didn’t want to be stuck in this car alone, it would have been boring. That’s all.”

“Hmm, okay.”

“No offense, but my leg kind of hurts,” Alan said. Saanika realised that her being on top of Alan wasn’t doing his leg any favours, so in a rush of apology, she slid off onto the seat next to him. 

“Do you think they can get through that hole?” 

“They could, if they had the brains to climb in but they can’t think like that. I think we’re okay for now, but now that that window’s broken…I don’t know how long the others will last,” Alan said mournfully, “I think we might…we might not…you know, I don’t know how much longer-”

“Don’t say that,” Saanika interrupted, “That was only one window, there’s still three left, and then the two in the front and back. We’re getting out of here.” 

“No we’re not, face it. The others abandoned us and-” He was quickly cut off, but for once, Saanika hadn’t interrupted him with an argument, she had leaned forward and kissed him. She couldn’t help it, it was the quickest way of making him stop talking shit, that was the only reason she did it. Certainly not because she’d been wanting to kiss him since she saw him. 

After a few moments, she pulled away fighting the urge to smile uncontrollably. “We’re getting out of here alive.”

“Okay,” Alan decided to just agree. 

“Good.” They looked at each other, waiting for something to happen but the groaning of the Undead and the hands coming through the window were forgotten for that moment. 

If anyone was watching at that moment, they would probably be confused to see two people making out in the back of a car, surrounded by the Undead and the possibility of   
certain death looming over them. 

*

The car ride back to the camp was silent. Everyone was trying to prepare for what they might find. The longer they kept going, the more their hope of finding their friends alive diminished. They had expected to run into them on the way back to the forest camp, but they were over half way and there was no sign of life at all. There was the odd straggler which hadn’t travelled with the horde of the Undead, but they managed to drive past them before it became a problem. No point in wasting bullets and attracting attention for nothing. 

Costantina turned the car into the side road leading to the forest, her signal ticking was the only sound in the car. “You don’t need to signal now, you know. The rules of the road are pointless,” Lauryn said, breaking the tense silence.

“Just a habit,” Costantina shrugged, “Keep your guns ready, just in case.” Ruby and Lauryn had already positioned their guns by the windows, prepared to shoot if they ran into any trouble. Austin was scanning the woodlands as they slowly drove past, looking desperately for any sign of Alan and Saanika. Lauryn nudged him gently and he broke out of his trance before nodding slightly and loading his gun. 

Suddenly, there was a loud gunshot filling the silence, followed by one more. Costantina slammed down the brakes in surprise and turned around. Lauryn and Austin looked equally confused about who had shot, and Ruby shook her head. 

“Who was that?” she asked.

“Maybe it’s them, let’s go they’re probably in trouble,” Austin said frantically. 

“How are they not out of bullets yet?” Costantina wondered, as she began to drive closer to the clearing. 

“Watch out for movement, it could be them…or the Undead,” Lauryn pointed out. She wondered why they were shooting still, surely they knew that they didn’t have enough ammunition to kill the horde. The shots would only attract more, they wouldn’t be so stupid…or would they? 

“How much further?” Ruby mumbled, keeping an eye on the trees as they drove through the rocky and uneven woodland.

“We’re nearly there I think,” Austin said hopefully, “I think I see one of the cabins on the left.”

“Stop here.” Costantina turned the car off and nobody moved for a moment, just listening. There was no more shooting. The sound of the Undead stepping on the twigs and leaves littering the forest floor was non-existent and they couldn’t hear any groans. In fact, the forest seemed to have returned to its state of tranquillity. 

“There were only two shots…” Lauryn said, sounding worried, “You don’t think they…you know?” Nobody responded. They couldn’t have…unless they were bitten. 

“Let’s go and check, quietly though,” Ruby said, gently opening her door and hopping out of the car, her gun close. The others followed suit, hoping they weren’t too late as they navigated the paths to the camp as quietly as they could. Soon, they broke through the dense forest and found themselves in the clearing they had called home.

The once tranquil and picturesque camp looked unrecognisable. While the cabins were still standing, they were cold and unwelcoming instead of the inviting, homely places they were mere hours ago. The walls were smeared with blood and the guts of the Undead, evidence of a large horde attempting the pass through the narrow gaps between the cabins. The fire had been put out seconds after the Undead descended upon what was once a sanctuary, the logs left in disarray. 

On the edge of the clearing, there was a car covered in such a thick layer of blood and various limbs were strewn around it having fallen off the Undead. Most had long since hobbled away, their attention captured by the unsuspecting family of wolves which had the misfortune of wandering into the clearing, attracted by the smell of decay. The car was still surrounded by what looked like hundreds of decomposed corpses, almost all of which had a bullet to the head.

Through the mess of guts and fluids on the car, one thing became clear to anyone who was looking on at the scene. Almost all the windows were smashed, having failed to withstand the pressure of the persistent corpses which were intent on having their feast…

“Shit.”

“Where are they?”

“There’s nobody here…”

Austin ran forward to the car, stepping over the bodies and peering inside. Lauryn followed him while Costantina and Ruby quickly checked the cabins. “What is it?” Lauryn asked Austin, who was just staring into the backseat of the car. He didn’t say anything so she came closer and had a look. She gasped in horror at the sight. Before she could speak, Austin had run back towards the others by the cabins, unable to look and hold his emotions in any longer. 

The backseat was streaked with blood, as if someone had been dragged out one of the broken windows. There was no sign of Saanika or Alan, but the front seats were worse. The driver’s seat was still wet with blood and the whole car had a strong, metallic smell. Lauryn didn’t stay to take in the sight, she just turned around and went back to Austin and the others. Austin was sobbing by the time she returned to tell Ruby and Costantina what they had seen in the car. 

“So…they’re dead?” Ruby whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. 

“We don’t know that, they could have escaped,” Lauryn said firmly, “We have to keep looking.”

“Where would they have gone, without the car?” Costantina asked, not looking up. There was no hope left now, even the determination of Lauryn and Austin was beginning to diminish. In the space of a few hours, they had lost three of their group. The reality of what they were facing was beginning to sink in. They had only survived this far because of luck, and their luck had started running out the second Cerys was bitten all those days ago. 

“Let’s go back to the car,” Austin said, his voice heavy as he refused to meet anyone’s eye. His gaze stayed far away from the car and the bodies by it. 

That’s when they heard a shot, quickly followed by a scream.


End file.
